


all the whispers of the possible become clear

by written_notes



Series: HP Next Gen series [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Growing Up, Harry Potter Next Generation, Headcanon, Next-Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-04-28 01:50:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 45,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5073322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/written_notes/pseuds/written_notes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He envied her. That was the truth of it, plain and simple. "</p><p> <br/>In which Albus, Rose and Scorpius grow up together at Hogwarts, struggle with being the children of the most famous wizards in society, and find friendship and love along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1st Year

He envied her.

That was the truth of it, plain and simple. Others thought he hated her, because of his name, his family and his house, all of which were evil and diametrically opposed to the shining goodness of the Weasley-Potter clan.

And in a sense, he _did_ hate her, but only because she had everything he hadn’t.

He looked across the Great Hall to where she was sitting at the Gryffindor table with countless cousins, apparently laughing at something that James Potter had said. A white-hot stab of jealousy seared deep in his gut as he observed their friendly banter.

His father was an only child – which was a good thing, when one considered how many more offspring Lucius Malfoy could have messed up – and his mother only had one older sister with one daughter, whom Scorpius only saw at the annual Greengrass family dinner.

To be honest, it had never occurred to him that he was missing out on having a big family – after all, being the only child meant that his mother and paternal grandmother were absolutely devoted to him, and that he could have anything he wanted without having to share. (His father was strict in his upbringing, though Scorpius knew his father loved him without question.)

That was until that day when he arrived at the Hogwarts platform for the first time, and saw a ridiculously large group of redheaded adults and children, along with a few non-gingers crowding the platform and making an awful lot of noise. His father had stiffened slightly when he saw them, and Scorpius knew this must be the famous Golden Trio and their relatives, whom his father’s family had opposed during the War.

His father had already appraised him of the events of the War, being rather brutally honest about the House of Malfoy’s contributions to the Dark Lord’s reign of terror in a conversation that Scorpius would never forget. His father had also described Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and their family, ultimately warning him not to make any unnecessary enemies for himself.

All these thoughts had been running through his blond head as he stared at the Weasley clan conversing animatedly with one another. Then he noticed her – obviously a first-year as well, redheaded, and looking almost as nervous as he was about being separated from his parents for the first time. But then a dark-haired boy came up to her with his trolley, and her expression changed to one of such immense relief that Scorpius couldn’t help but envy her at that moment.

And then they were joined by an older boy who looked like the first one, then a few more students who were all boarding the train. There was a large round of hugs being distributed to the children from all the adults, and Scorpius suddenly felt like the grand total of two parents he had to hug him was pitifully lacking in comparison.

He blinked as the memory faded, his gaze refocusing on the aforementioned girl across the dining hall – Rose Weasley. Almost never at the centre of attention in her big family, and yet never out on the fringe of it either. She wasn’t a popular prankster like Fred Weasley or James Potter, or a beauty like Victoire or Dominique Weasley. As he observed each of them, he saw how they individually had their own characteristics, adding their own colour to the group while undeniably remaining united as a family.

Maybe if his father had had ten other cousins to support him too, he might not have become a Death Eater. Maybe if Scorpius had any cousins to be friends with, he wouldn’t constantly feel like he was missing out on something huge. Maybe he would always have family to save him a seat at the dining tables, family to go to for help, family to confide in, and family to make sure he was never lonely.

But why did he single Rose Weasley out of the lot of them to envy? Perhaps it was because she was in the same year as him, and had a cousin along with her who was also her best friend. Rose Weasley and Albus Potter did everything together, which Scorpius was forced to see every time he shared any classes with them.

The fact that she was the brightest witch in their year didn’t help either. While she had seemed shy to volunteer answers at the start, she had grown accustomed to the teachers who loved her and the students who either admired her brains or good-naturedly ribbed her for being a know-it-all. Now it would be strange for a class to go by without her raising her hand to rattle off an answer she’d learnt off by heart from one of her many textbooks.

Oh, he knew she wasn’t just naturally brilliant – he’d seen her slogging away at the books in the library, and heard comments about her doing the same in the Gryffindor common room. Several Ravenclaw students still couldn’t figure out why she hadn’t been placed in their house instead, and bemoaned the points that she was steadily racking up in her house’s hourglass.

His brows furrowed for a moment as he considered this point. Was Rose Weasley in Gryffindor because she was truly brave and chivalrous, or because the Sorting Hat had decided to go along with the family tradition? After all, the Hat had easily put him into Slytherin after saying something about ambition, and Scorpius really didn’t think he had much ambition for an 11-year old.

Of course, no one was surprised that he’d been sorted into Slytherin. And there constantly were snide remarks being made about his family and how he was probably just as evil as his father and grandparents. It seemed that his grandfather in particular had really been a nasty piece of work, if the never-ending references to his murders were even half true. Even some of the other Slytherins hated him on principle because he gave their house a bad name.

And while he was getting all the flak for apparently having chosen the wrong parents to be born to, Rose Weasley was basking in the admiration for being the daughter of two out of three of the Golden Trio, being praised for being ‘just like her mother’ on a weekly basis, and being adored by her troupe of older cousins.

It wasn’t fair at all, he scowled. Then, as if hearing his thoughts, she turned her head and looked straight at him, her blue eyes widening as she saw him staring at her. Scorpius realised he’d been caught and quickly averted his gaze back to the unappetizing food in front of him.

\--

“Hey, Al, isn’t that Scorpius Malfoy?” Rose nudged her best cousin and tilted her chin towards the blond head studiously bent over his plate at the Slytherin table. 

Albus looked up from his chicken. “Yeah, why?”

“I think he was… glaring at me.” Her voice held a tinge of bewilderment. “Why would he do that? I barely even know him.”

If it had been James or Fred, they would have shrugged it off as her imagination or simply as ‘Slytherins all have messed-up faces’, but Albus liked to analyse things almost as much as Rose did, though in a quieter way. “Maybe he doesn’t like you.”

“Albus Potter!” Rose hit him on the shoulder with a book, leaving Albus to wonder why she had even brought a book down to dinner in the first place. “How could you say such a mean thing?”

“I didn’t mean it like that!” He retorted, rubbing his shoulder woefully. “It’s just that, well, his dad and our dads didn’t really get along, did they?”

They both knew that was a gross understatement, having learnt the history of their parents in the war since they were toddlers. “Dad told me to beat him in every test.” She recounted doubtfully. To be fair, her mother had chastised her father for that, but it seemed that he really didn’t like Scorpius Malfoy’s father.

“Seeing as how you beat everyone in everything, I hardly think he’d personally count that against you.” Albus shrugged. “Although I think I heard from someone that he’s coming in a close second.”

“Well, if he thinks I’m going to stop trying my best just so that he doesn’t think we’re mortal enemies, he’s in for a surprise.” Rose said firmly.

Albus chuckled at his cousin’s competitiveness. “Didn’t think so. Still,” his gaze turned contemplative as he observed the Slytherin first-year, “do you think we should, I dunno, just make sure that he knows we don’t hate him? Dad always said that judging people by what family they come from is the reason the war started in the first place.”

“Maybe.” She pondered this suggestion. “But what would we say? ‘Hey Malfoy, I know your dad and mine hate each other’s guts, but I just wanted to let you know that I don’t feel the same way’?”

“When you put it like that, it does sound kind of silly.” The two first-years turned to see their older cousin Victoire smiling down at them.

“What do you think, Tori?” Rose asked, having full faith in her beautiful cousin – who was Head Girl and one of Rose’s role models – to give them the right advice. 

“I think it’s a good thing that Al listens so well to Uncle Harry’s speeches.” Victoire patted Albus on the shoulder. “Not everyone who’s surname is Malfoy, or Lestrange, or Black-” she paused significantly, “is a bad person.”

“You mean like Teddy’s grandma.” Rose said astutely.

“And my dad’s godfather.” Albus chimed in. 

“Exactly.” Victoire smiled again, nearly causing a passing group of Gryffindor boys to trip over their feet. “I’m not going to tell you what to do about him, but I believe that you will act in a manner befitting the children of those who have fought hardest to prove that no one should be judged by their blood.”

\--

“I am not going to be friends with him! _Ever_!”

“Come on, Rosie, I thought we discussed this-”

“Al, he was deliberately upstaging me during Defence Against the Dark Arts today!” Rose slammed her books down on a table in the Gryffindor common room angrily.

“Aw, did someone make our Rosie-posy mad?” James laughed, looking highly amused.

“Scorpius Malfoy managed to answer some questions during DADA today, and she’s upset because she didn’t get to.” Albus explained with a roll of his eyes.

“Ooh, someone’s finally giving our Posy some competition.” Fred joined in the conversation.

“It’s not that he answered the questions – it was the way in which he did it!” Rose fumed. “He was totally mocking me!”

“Rose, I really don’t think he was.” Albus tried to placate her, but it was useless. Rose took after her mother in refusing to listen to anyone else when she was on one of her tirades.

“If it’s a competition he wants, he’ll get it!” She pulled out some parchment and a quill from her bag. “My essay is going to be _loads_ better than his.” She muttered as she began writing furiously.

Albus shook his head in resignation as his brother and cousin sniggered. To be fair, he could understand why Rose felt this way – despite being assured of her own intelligence and hard work, she secretly hated being called a know-it-all who was far too enthusiastic about answering questions in class. Having someone else raise their hand and answer in a similarly enthusiastic manner just fuelled her insecurities about how others viewed her.

Professor Hunt had been rather surprised that anyone would try to volunteer an answer with Rose Weasley in the same class, and had decided to give the Slytherin student a chance to answer. Malfoy’s answer had been absolutely correct, though not verbatim from the Standard Book of Spells, as Rose had claimed after she’d gotten over the shock of ‘being upstaged’.

Maybe it was a good thing that Scorpius Malfoy had stolen Rose’s thunder, Albus mused. He loved his cousin dearly, but even he had to admit that Rose could be a bit overbearing about showing off her knowledge. However, he still had the feeling that Malfoy didn’t like either of them. And if he kept this up, Rose might just go ahead with Uncle Ron’s sentiments and not rest until she’d beaten him into the ground, with the other Gryffindors laughing.

Albus sighed and wondered why he seemed to be the only sane person in the common room.

\--

By the time Christmas came around, almost everyone in first year was aware of the silent but ever present rivalry going on between Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy. No one could miss the smirk on Rose’s face whenever she managed to answer a question first or was praised on a particularly well-written essay when Malfoy wasn’t. 

While Rose took it personally, Scorpius wasn’t actually invested in beating her. It had been the constant spiteful remarks made about his family and dirty looks he received that spurred him to work hard and do his best, so that he would one day be seen as a capable wizard in his own right. Making Rose Weasley angry was just an added bonus.

He was rejoicing inwardly over the good grade he’d received on his latest Potions essay when he overheard the conversation between Weasley and Potter as they left the dungeons.

“So are we all heading to the Burrow for Christmas?” She was asking her cousin.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t we be?” Potter replied, apparently surprised that she was asking a question with such an obvious answer. 

Weasley bit her lip. “It’s just that, we’ve been given a lot of holiday homework, and it’ll take forever to research and get it all done.”

“Rose, are you seriously considering spending _Christmas_ doing homework in Hogwarts rather than enjoying Grandma Weasley’s famous roast chicken and potatoes at the Burrow?” Potter raised a brow. “Not to mention backyard Quidditch, seeing Hugo and Lily again, testing Uncle George’s latest Wheezes-”

“Alright, alright, I got it.” She grumbled good-naturedly, and then brightened as a thought occurred to her. “I’ll try to finish most of it before we go home, and then ask Mum to proofread it for me!”

“Mind if I copy yours after that?” He asked innocently, earning a smack from her.

As they went off chatting happily about the upcoming holidays, Scorpius felt any previous joy draining away from him. His mother had asked him to come home for Christmas, but it would be just them and his grandparents having a fancy dinner in their dining room while his father looked uncomfortable around his grandfather and his mother would talk incessantly to his grandmother to cover up the awkwardness.

Maybe he should just stay at Hogwarts.

\--

“Hey.”

Scorpius looked up to see a most unlikely person standing next to his table in the library.

“Do you mind if I sit here as well?” Albus Potter gestured to the empty seat opposite Scorpius. “The library’s pretty full today.”

“…okay.” Scorpius replied slowly, moving his books to clear some space for the other boy. It was a fair statement, since the end-of-year exams were coming up.

“Thanks.” Albus said in relief and sat down, taking out his own writing implements. “I’m Albus Potter, by the way.” He stuck out a friendly hand.

Scorpius blinked. What was Potter up to? Had he been put up to some kind of dare to ‘prank the Malfoy kid’? Yet the other boy didn’t seem to have any ulterior motives, and Scorpius gingerly shook his hand. “Scorpius Malfoy.”

Then they lapsed into silence, and all that could be heard was the scratching of quills on parchment, until Albus spoke up again. “Sorry to bother you…” Scorpius looked up with a slight frown. “…but have you done the Potions essay on the 12 uses of dragon blood?”

“Yes.” Of course he had – he’d finished it a few days ago, double-checked it for any mistakes, and added a few more lines for extra credit. Why, was Weasley now enlisting her cousin to spy on Scorpius’ homework before it was even handed in?

“Um, do you think you could help me with mine?” Albus asked tentatively. “I usually ask Rose to help me, but she’s really busy with her other homework.”

“Don’t you have a whole heap of cousins and a brother to ask for help?” Scorpius couldn’t help but retort, with a hint of bitterness in his voice.

Albus looked a little surprised at Scorpius’ tone. “Oh, I hadn’t really thought of that. They’re all older and have their own things to do though, especially Victoire, Dominique and Molly. That’s why I normally ask Rose for help. James and Fred are kind of useless in that regard.” The last part was said in such a conspiratorial whisper that Scorpius couldn’t help but smile a little.

He ended up helping Albus after all, finding the right book to get his answers from, and correcting some of his mistakes. He was still a little suspicious about the other boy’s motives, and didn’t let him simply copy his own essay, though to his credit, Potter didn’t actually ask to do so.

“Wow, thanks.” Albus smiled, looking proudly at his finished essay. “I really owe you one, Malfoy.”

Scorpius winced as he heard his family name. “Don’t…call me that.” It wasn’t that he was ashamed of his family – well, maybe a little ashamed of Grandfather Lucius – but after being mocked for months simply for being a Malfoy, he didn’t want any more people addressing him by it if he could help it. Words were powerful, and he wanted people to remember him for who he was, not who his father was.

“I’ll call you Scorpius, then.” Albus quickly amended. “But only if you call me Albus. Every time someone calls me ‘Potter’, I think they’re referring to James or my dad. Rose feels the same way about her name.”

“What’s so bad about being a Weasley?” Scorpius replied without thinking. The Weasleys were by far the largest and most prominent family in Hogwarts, and everyone either loved them or envied them to the extreme.

Albus looked at him contemplatively, thinking he was finally starting to understand how the other boy felt. “You’d have to ask Rose to find out.” Seeing his expression grow darker, Albus tried to relieve the tension. “Speaking of Rose, don’t tell her I said this, but I think you’re better at Potions than she is. And a better teacher as well.”

He grinned at Scorpius’ bemused expression. “Come on, it’s almost dinner time.”

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

\--

“Bye, Scorpius. See you after the summer holidays.” Albus waved, and Scorpius waved back, though a little less enthusiastically as he saw Rose Weasley give them an incredulous look. 

“Since when are you on friendly terms with Malfoy?” Rose hissed as their parents drew near.

“Dunno, not too long ago.” Albus tried to recall the exact date. “He helped me with an essay.”

Before Rose could reply, their parents descended on them in a flurry. “Oh Albus, we missed you so much!” His mother gave him a bone-crushing hug.

“What am I, chopped liver?” James complained.

Ginny Potter turned towards her elder son with a menacing gleam in her eye. “You, young man, are in serious trouble for attempting to mail a toilet seat to Lily!” Ron guffawed at the mention of James’ latest prank, and got elbowed in the stomach by his wife.

“It was Fred’s idea, honest!” James pointed a finger at his cousin, who was beaming innocently, though Albus knew that Uncle George secretly encouraged his son to improve on the pranks that he and his twin had attempted in their years at Hogwarts.

Unbeknownst to them, Scorpius was observing their interactions with a familiar deep-seated jealousy in the pit of his stomach. He allowed himself one last look at the large family before turning to follow his mother out the station.


	2. 2nd Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Rose and Scorpius are rivals, and Albus deals with being the son of Harry Potter.

“May I sit here?” Scorpius asked stiffly as Rose gaped at him. “All the other compartments are full.”

“Sure.” Albus replied immediately, shifting his book-bag over to make some room and ignoring Rose’s disbelieving look. Scorpius sat down next to Albus and realised there was another girl he didn’t recognise. “This is our cousin Roxanne. She’s starting Hogwarts this year.”

Scorpius nodded a hello to the small girl, who smiled back cheerily. It only further strengthened his belief that there was going to be a Weasley in every year of Hogwarts in the near future.

“Don’t you have other friends to sit with?” Rose asked bluntly, and Albus winced.

Scorpius shrugged. “I couldn’t seem to find any of them.” _Not everyone has cousins to board the train and sit with them automatically,_ he thought sourly.

Albus glared at Rose before she could retort about Scorpius only sitting with them as a last option. “So, how were your holidays?”

“We went to France for a holiday because my father had business there. Other than that, it wasn’t really interesting.”

“Wow, I’ve never been to France before.” Roxanne said enviously.

“Yeah, the closest we get to it is when Aunt Fleur’s sister comes over to visit and they speak in French the whole time, while we try to guess what they’re really saying.” Albus joked.

“What was it like?” Rose found herself asking. Even though she disliked Scorpius Malfoy, her academic brain demanded that she find out as much as she could about his experience of a totally foreign place.

Scorpius blinked in surprise. “Well, we got to eat some authentic French food…”

\--

“Hey guys.” Rose greeted the Scamander twins cheerfully.

“Hey Rose.” They chorused back.

“So, what’s it like being in Ravenclaw?” She asked them in interest, since it was the house she had only just avoided going to.

“The people in our year are pretty nice.” Lorcan said after a moment’s thought. “They read a lot, and they really like to share what they’ve learnt with each other, so there’s always something interesting being discussed in the common room.”

Rose nodded in awe.

“Most of them don’t seem to believe in a lot of magical creatures out there though.” Lysander frowned slightly. “I wonder why they keep insisting that Nargles don’t exist when they are clearly the ones responsible for all the stuff that goes missing.”

“I see.” Rose tried not to laugh, because the twins really were like their parents. “Are the older students also nice to you, though?”

“Oh, yes.” Lysander smiled again and Lorcan nodded. “Everyone’s nice. You would like it there, Rose.”

Rose was a little startled by the astute comment, and wondered if it was true.

\--

It only took a fortnight of lessons and homework for any goodwill Rose might have felt towards Scorpius to vanish. Not a couple of days went by without her ranting about how ‘that stupid Slytherin’ was constantly trying to one-up her in every class they shared.

Roxanne had been rather bewildered by her normally good-tempered cousin transforming into a ‘raging madwoman’ (as Fred liked to call it). When she asked why no one found this alarming, James had simply shrugged and said, “It was amusing at first, but now it’s kind of boring. Just tune her out and you’ll be fine.”

When Albus finally complained to Scorpius about the competitiveness, Scorpius was equally firm about the matter. “I don’t care if we never become friends, Albus. I’m not going to compromise on my academic performance just so that Rose Weasley can feel like I’m not her mortal enemy.”

Albus could only sit there and blink in astonishment, because his friend’s words were almost an exact replica of Rose’s in their first year. “Okay, but couldn’t you just let Rose know that you’re not _actually_ trying to be her rival in everything?”

Then Scorpius really surprised him by giving him the patented Malfoy smirk. “Now, where would be the fun in that?”

\--

“Hey, did you see the Daily Prophet this morning?” Jordan Finch asked Albus as they stood side by side next to some innocent-looking pots. However, Albus had learned, to his chagrin, that almost nothing in Herbology was as benign as it seemed.

“No, I haven’t read it yet.” Albus shrugged. He usually stole the paper off one of his cousins during the afternoon, mainly to read the articles his mother wrote.

“Well, there was an article about your dad, whom you really resemble, by the way.” Finch began, and Albus tried hard not to roll his eyes at the oft-heard phrase. “Apparently they busted this ring of illegal potion smugglers after months of investigation. How cool is that?”

“It’s pretty cool.” Albus admitted.

“I don’t suppose your dad told you any interesting details?” The Hufflepuff student looked rather excited at the prospect. “Like whether they infiltrated the organisation using Polyjuice Potion? I mean, your dad’s no stranger to Polyjuice Potion, according to _The Man Who Lived Twice_.”

“Oh, you’ve read that?” Albus grimaced, wondering if there was anyone in this school who hadn’t read that biography of his father.

Finch looked at him like he was crazy. “Of course, mate! By the time he was our age, he’d already defeated Voldemort once! How cool is that? I can’t imagine how awesome it must be to have him for a dad.”

Albus chuckled weakly. “Awesome.”

\--

“Did you read the article about Dad?” Albus asked James as he trooped over to his elder brother in the Gryffindor common room.

“Yup.” James nodded. “Looked like pretty serious stuff.” He eyed his younger brother. “You don’t look too happy about it for some reason.”

Albus plopped down onto the couch. “Just another one of my classmates asking me for Dad’s autograph.”

“I’ve got some autographed photos lying around.” James perked up. “Your friend can have one for 10 Galleons.” Albus took a moment to goggle at his mercenary brother, and James blinked innocently. “What? Most of _my_ friends are over the fact that I’m the son of the great Harry Potter, so I don’t have anyone else to sell them to!”

Albus wasn’t sure why he’d thought James would be of any help, but decided to complain anyway. “Sometimes I just get tired of being ‘the son of the great Harry Potter’. Why do people keep assuming that just because I look like him that I’m going to be like him?”

James shrugged. “Dunno about that. You’d make a pretty lousy Auror.”

“It’s true.” Rose suddenly appeared behind them. “I think Al’s too kind-hearted for that job.”

“Thanks guys.” Albus replied dryly. “I really needed that confirmation that I’ll never be anything but a sad copy of the Saviour of the Wizarding World. There probably wouldn’t be any point in trying out for the Quidditch team, in that case.”

James pondered this for two seconds before agreeing. “You probably shouldn’t.”

“James!” Rose looked aghast. “Shouldn’t you be encouraging him?”

“Nope.” He didn’t even blink. “The only spot open for our team is a Beater, and Albus isn’t going to – excuse the pun – beat the other students trying out, especially Peake. He’ll probably get in.”

“That’s true.” Albus sighed. Why did it feel like the world was against him?

James eyed his despondent younger brother and his expression softened fractionally. “Look, there’s actually no harm in trying out this year. Even if you don’t get in, it’ll give the current captain and other team members an idea of how good you are. And next year when more of them graduate, there’ll be a better spot open for you.”

“I’ll never be as good a Seeker as Dad was, though.” Albus said doubtfully.

“Who says you have to be?” James retorted, and Albus was oddly struck by how simple it all seemed to his brother, who undoubtedly had gone through the same aggravations and doubts as the firstborn of Harry Potter. 

“Just be yourself, and that will be enough.” James advised. “Unless you can be me. Then you should definitely be me.”

“It’s a wonder how there’s enough space in the entire Hogwarts for you and your ego, James.” Rose scoffed.

“We manage just fine, thank you.” He waved a hand nonchalantly. “Now, where were we on those 10 Galleons?” 

\--

Despite his father’s fame and the pressure to be like him, all in all, Albus was rather thankful that he didn’t have to deal with anything like the Chamber of Secrets in _his_ second year. In fact, the year went by pretty smoothly for Albus, interspersed with accompanying the Scamander twins in their search for Nargles and other species, training on his broomstick during his free time, and mediating between Scorpius and Rose whenever they happened to meet each other. Before he knew it, it was June and a rather momentous occasion had arisen.

“What extra subjects are you going to take next year, Al?” Rose asked.

“I don’t know. We only have to take two more, right?” Albus was seriously contemplating closing his eyes, dropping his wand onto the list of five elective subjects and picking the two that his wand landed on.

Rose flipped through the books she’d borrowed from her older cousins on the subject matter. “You can take more than two if you want, you know. Mum said that she had to drop Divination and Muggle Studies for her timetable to work but-”

“Don’t tell me – you’re thinking of attempting all twelve subjects?”

They looked up to see Scorpius standing across the table from them. “Even if I took all twelve, I’d still be able to beat you in every single one of them.” Rose scowled. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, this is a free area.” Scorpius gestured to the Study Hall they were in, with students from all four houses scattered throughout. Of course, since most of the exams were over, most of the people in the hall were using it to play board games.

“I invite you to join us,” Albus pointed generously to a seat opposite them, “in making the all-important life decision about which extra subjects to take, which will determine our O.W.Ls, and then our N.E.W.Ts, and subsequently our career choices in the near future.”

Rose sniffed at her cousin’s blatant mockery of her earlier speech to him. “I’m right, and you know it.”

“I’m barely thirteen – how am I supposed to choose if I don’t even know what I want to do with my life?” Albus sighed.

“Choose the ones that will leave your options open.” Scorpius and Rose said simultaneously, before staring at each other in annoyance.

Albus looked at the two of them before repressing a grin. “Anyway, have you decided on what to pick yet, Rose?”

“What, and tell _him_?” No points for guessing who she meant. “He’ll probably take the same subjects just so that he can try to top my score.”

“Please, as if I’m that pathetic.” Scorpius scoffed right back. “Go on, Weasley, tell us.”

“Professor Longbottom said that it’s not advisable to take everything.” Rose chewed on her lip. “I think Arithmancy and Ancient Runes seem interesting, according to what I’ve read.” She tapped the books next to her. “Care of Magical Creatures seems useful to get a good grasp of as well. And Muggle Studies could be interesting as well…but I’m not taking Divination.”

Albus nodded. “James says it’s a load of rubbish.”

Scorpius raised a brow. “Isn’t Divination responsible for the many important prophecies that are made and investigated? Such as, I dunno, the one made about _your father and Lord Voldemort_?”

“Yeah, but how often do you come across a true Seer?” Rose pointed out before Albus could reply. “Prophecies like those are hard to come by, and it’s unlikely that any of us will really have much use for Divining the future when we’re out of school.”

“Arithmancy is also about divining the future, in case you didn’t realise.” Scorpius shot back.

“Yes, but with numbers and symbols and meaningful analysis!” Rose waved the copy of _Numerology and Grammatica_ which she’d borrowed from Louis, nearly clubbing him on the head with it.

Albus sighed as the two rivals got into one of their heated arguments again. Perhaps it was for the best that he’d stopped trying to get them to become friends. He might have had to sacrifice his sense of hearing in the process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the shortness of this chapter - subsequent chapters will be longer!


	3. 3rd Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lily and Hugo start at Hogwarts, Rose heckles Scorpius about grades, and Albus plays Quidditch.

September came around quickly, and now it was Lily and Hugo’s turns to board the Hogwarts Express for the first time. Rose secretly couldn’t wait until they got used to Hogwarts – it had been tiring to handle their incessant questions about the school over the summer holidays.

Unlike the previous year, Scorpius glanced into their carriage and started walking off instead of entering. Albus frowned and called his friend’s name. Scorpius retraced his steps rather reluctantly and slid the doors open. “Hey.”

“Hey. Want to sit with us?” Albus asked, belatedly realising that Scorpius might want to sit with the other Slytherin third-year students instead. It also then occurred to him that he always ended up sitting with his cousins rather than seeking out his year-mates from Gryffindor.

Scorpius’ gaze flickered over the carriage of Weasleys and Potters, getting an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. “It seems kind of full, so…”

Rose glanced around the carriage, and determined that there was actually enough space even if the Scamander twins decided to join them as well. But she wasn’t about to invite her number one rival to join them and ruin her ride to Hogwarts.

“Nonsense.” Albus smiled and all but dragged Scorpius in. “This is my sister Lily, and Rose’s brother Hugo.” The two redheaded first years smiled and nodded back at him, Lily looking rather in awe at the third-year student. “Guys, this is Scorpius Malfoy.”

“Hello.” He said stiffly, and extended his hand to politely shake theirs.

“Scorpius Malfoy?” Hugo echoed. “You’re the one Rosie keeps mentioning in her letters?”

Rose gasped and elbowed her younger brother in the ribs. Scorpius tilted his head to the side, his interest now piqued. “Does she now?”

“Yeah.” Hugo nodded enthusiastically. “She’s always saying how you’re competing with her-”

“Hugo Weasley!” Rose fairly growled. “One more word and I promise I’ll tell Mum and Dad about every bit mischief you get up to in my weekly letters.”

“You’re going to do that whether or not I tell him about your letters.” Hugo scoffed, knowing his sister all too well.

“Yes, but I might just decide to exaggerate how much mischief you were actually involved in. Who do you think Mum and Dad are going to believe?” She grinned fiercely.

Hugo rolled his eyes and turned back to Scorpius. “Older sisters are the worst, don’t you agree?”

Now Lily scoffed at that. “Please, older brothers are way worse. Just look at James and Al.” She looked to Scorpius expectantly.

He shrugged awkwardly. “I wouldn’t know.”

“Don’t you have any brothers or sisters?” Lily asked curiously. Scorpius shook his head, trying not to feel bitter at her innocent question. “What about cousins?”

“I’ve got one cousin, but I only see her about once a year.”

Sensing that the atmosphere around Scorpius was becoming rather awkward, Albus redirected the conversation towards Quidditch. Rose observed Scorpius, clearly still ruminating over the earlier topic of family, and wondered just what he was thinking.

\--

“Rose, don’t you think taking eleven subjects is stretching it a bit?” Albus pointed out as they rode up to the castle, carriages pulled along by invisible thestrals.

“I told you, if it gets too much to handle, I’ll just drop the least interesting one. Professor Longbottom already said it’s okay.” She said impatiently, having heard this question several times over the summer.

“I suppose that goes for you too, Scorpius.” Albus sighed.

Scorpius nodded. “Professor Bletchley said the same thing, but he thinks I’ll be fine with eleven subjects.”

“Are you saying that I won’t be?” Rose gasped in outrage. “You don’t seriously think that you’re going to beat me, do you?”

“I’m looking forward to Divination,” Scorpius informed Albus cheerfully, “when I’ll finally be able to take a subject in peace without your cousin demanding to know my grade for every single piece of homework.”

“Who knows, maybe there’ll be a subject in which _I_ beat the two of you hollow.” Albus suggested.

\--

Rose wasn’t sure how she felt about Hugo being sorted into Ravenclaw. Sure, he wasn’t the first Weasley cousin to not be a Gryffindor – Lucy was in Ravenclaw as well, while Roxanne was in Hufflepuff – but she had fully expected him to join her and the majority of the clan in the scarlet and gold house.

Then she exhaled in annoyance and knocked her fist on her head. “Concentrate, Rose,” she muttered to herself as she attempted to refocus on the book in front of her.

“Trying to pound information into your brain, Weasley?”

Rose grimaced as she recognised Scorpius’ voice. “Go away, Malfoy.”

He ignored her and sat down at her table, seemingly impervious to her glare. “What’s wrong?”

“You couldn’t possibly understand.”

“Try me.” He raised his brows challengingly.

Her eyes narrowed for a moment, but then she decided it was probably easier to talk to someone who wasn’t in her family. “Hugo got sorted into Ravenclaw.” When Scorpius made no reply, she continued. “And there’s nothing wrong with going to Ravenclaw – I mean, the Hat wanted to put me there too – but I always thought that he’d come to Gryffindor and we’d be together again, and I don’t know what Dad’s going to say…”

Scorpius tried to digest what she was saying as she continued rambling on. Maybe he had no siblings of his own, but he could certainly empathise with the feeling of _wanting_ a sibling to be in the same house. Then something she mentioned made him frown. “Why aren’t you in Ravenclaw, then?”

Rose went silent, her mouth forming a small ‘O’ as she realised what she’d inadvertently said. “Because… I asked the Hat to put me in Gryffindor.”

Now he was confused. “You _asked_ it to put you in Gryffindor? Just like that?”

“Well, yeah.” She replied, a little defensively, because she hated anyone questioning her motives. “I just thought it would make my Mum and Dad happier if I were a Gryffindor, and Albus had already been Sorted there and I didn’t want to be alone in Ravenclaw-”

“What I meant was,” Scorpius interrupted her, “are you saying that the Hat takes your preference into account?”

“Yes, didn’t you know that? Albus said his dad told him so.” Rose saw from his expression that he’d obviously been unaware of that, and then she wondered if he’d been Sorted into Slytherin against his will. “And since Hugo knew that too, it means he didn’t want to be in Gryffindor as much as I did. What does that say about family tradition?”

“You know, Weasley, not everybody wants to follow in their parents’ footsteps.” And with that, he left the library just as suddenly as he’d appeared.

\--

As it turned out, Albus _did_ manage to find something he excelled at far better than either Rose or Scorpius did, which was Quidditch. It didn’t come as a surprise to anyone, since most people expected him to be exactly like his dad, even more than they’d expected it of James, who was already one of the Gryffindor Chasers.

“It’s a lot of pressure.” He’d admitted to Rose. “On one hand, some people think I’ll be a shoe-in for the team since Dad was the youngest Seeker in a century and Mum was one of the Holyhead Harpies. But other people are saying that I’ll get in because I’ve got a brother and a cousin on the team already.”

“Other people can sod off.” Rose had replied rather fiercely. “Do you remember what you said to me when I was worrying about the exams last year?”

“Er, ‘Shut up, Rose, I’m trying to study’?”

“Not that!” She’d smacked him. “You said, ’Stop worrying and just trust in yourself. Your parents will be proud of you no matter what.’ Now it’s my turn to say that to you.”

He’d had to smile at that, and gave her a bear hug then. Now he was standing on the pitch with the insides of his stomach churning around. He heard a cheer and saw her waving and beaming at him from the stands. What amazed him was that Scorpius was sitting next to her with an equally encouraging expression, and that the two of them weren’t arguing about anything.

“He’ll make it to the team, won’t he?” Rose asked quietly after the Gryffindor Captain had started addressing the potential new players.

Scorpius was a little surprised, because not five minutes ago he’d seen her confidently boasting about her cousin’s abilities to another group of people. “I’d have thought you’d be more aware of how well the others play compared to Albus, seeing as how you’re actually in this House.”

She mumbled something even more quietly.

“Come again?”

“I don’t know that much about Quidditch.” She repeated through gritted teeth, and Scorpius had to laugh at how reluctant she was to show a lack of knowledge about _anything_. 

“If it makes you feel better, I know less about Quidditch than most boys my age do.” He realised that the atmosphere had grown a little awkward at his uncharacteristic empathy, and he tried to laugh it off. “Though I know loads more than _you_ do, that’s for sure.”

Rose rolled her eyes and sighed. “It’s just that he wants it so badly. I really hope he makes the team.”

Her love for her cousin was so palpable that it forcibly reminded Scorpius of the envy that he’d thought he’d managed to get rid of long ago. “Albus is lucky to have so many people rooting for him.” He directed her attention to where James was chewing on his robes anxiously and Fred was mock-aiming Bludgers near to the other competitors.

Then it was Albus’ turn to kick off from the pitch, and the two of them started cheering again.

\--

“Hey, I’ve invited Scorpius to come over to the Burrow for Christmas.” Albus’ statement was met with silence in the Gryffindor common room as his cousins and siblings gave him varying looks of surprise.

“What?” Rose couldn’t believe her ears. “ _Why_?”

“Because his parents are going overseas for business and he’d have to stay in Hogwarts all alone.” Albus explained patiently, having expected some kind of outburst from Rose. “His parents said it would be okay, and I asked Mum already.”

Rose groaned, having envisioned a nice short holiday without having to see Malfoy’s annoying face, or having to think about how he was currently getting higher marks than her in Care of Magical Creatures, Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts. 

“Come on, Rosie, it’s not like you’ll have to talk much to him.” Lily placated her.

“Does he play Quidditch?” James asked.

Albus thought for a bit. “I think he can.”

James nodded. “Good, then he can replace Molly, since she’ll be busy at her internship.” And as if that settled the matter, he turned back to his essay. He and Fred had finally buckled down to start cramming for the O.W.L.s they were meant to be sitting at the end of the year, to the eternal surprise of some of their professors. 

“Yeah, well, I doubt Dad’s going to be happy about Draco Malfoy’s son coming over.” Rose reminded them in a last attempt to make her family see reason, though her father’s reaction to Scorpius Malfoy was in reality the least of her concerns.

“Mum said not to worry about Uncle Ron.” Albus replied, holding up his letter from Ginny Potter triumphantly.

“Fine.” Rose grumbled. “But if he so much as mentions how his Boggart-repelling was better than mine, _I will bloody well hex him_.”

“Mind your language, Posy.” Fred called out lazily. “You’re setting a bad example for Lilykins.”

_Idiots, I’m related to idiots_ , Rose bemoaned silently, while Lily giggled.

\--

It seemed that the adults had been told in advance about Scorpius’ attendance at their annual family Christmas dinner. In fact, Rose was sure that if her dad hadn’t been informed beforehand, he’d have been making a much bigger fuss about having a Malfoy over for the holidays in the Burrow. 

Ron had still muttered something about ‘the little bugger who’s been trying to one-up my Rosie’, after which Hermione had pleasantly elbowed him in the stomach. That hadn’t stopped him from asking Scorpius if their humble abode was a little smaller than he was used to.

Grandma Weasley hadn’t been too pleased either about the grand-nephew of Bellatrix Lestrange eating her home-cooked food, but had been reminded by Bill that Teddy Lupin fit the same description. And after Scorpius had commented that her potato salad was the best he’d ever had, she felt a lot more kindly disposed towards the young boy who wasn’t able to spend Christmas with his family.

Scorpius felt thankful that he’d been seated between Teddy and Albus. Even though he didn’t know his second-cousin that well, the older wizard had a way of making people around him feel comfortable. And if Albus was aware of the awkward tension around the adult table, he made no indication of it.

The number of people they’d manage to cram into the dining area was remarkable, and Scorpius felt a little like he was suffocating. James, having polished off his last piece of chicken, had announced that it was time for a little backyard Quidditch before the sun went down. “Come on, Al, Malfoy – you can continue stuffing your faces later.” He’d said impatiently, not noticing how some of their parents had flinched at the sound of Scorpius’ last name.

When Scorpius finally returned to the house, he noticed that the adults having tea and conversation in the living room had quieted down once they noticed his presence. He felt his cheeks heat up at the thought of them maligning his family name, which, based on the expressions on some of their faces, he was pretty sure they’d been doing.

“Scorpius, weren’t you playing Quidditch with the others?” Hermione asked.

“I got tired rather quickly.” He admitted helplessly. “I’m not much of a Quidditch player, and nowhere near as good as any of them.”

Ginny couldn’t help but grin at his compliment. “And are you a fan of any team?”

Scorpius flushed. “Um, even though the Chudley Cannons never win-”

Ron nearly spat out his drink, and spent the next few seconds choking for breath. “What d’you mean by that?”

“Please, Ron.” Ginny said dismissively. “Everyone knows that their chances of winning are about as high as your chances of learning to operate a Muggle handheld telephone.” Ron sputtered at that, while Harry and Arthur traded grins.

“They’re still my favourite team.” Scorpius hastened to assure Ron. “I think it’s admirable how they keep persevering despite everyone’s negative opinions towards them and their reputation.”

Hermione’s gaze softened at his meaningful remark, as she shared a look of understanding with Harry.

\--

“Malfoy spent the Christmas holidays with your family?”

It was the seventh time one of the Weasleys or Potters had been asked variants of the same question, with tones ranging from scepticism to shock. This time, however, it was said in the vicinity of the third-year boy in question, as they were just starting the Potions class shared by Gryffindor and Slytherin.

“Yes.” Albus answered wearily.

“But…it’s _Malfoy_.”

Despite avidly pretending not to overhear the conversation, Scorpius couldn’t help but wince at the tone of incredulity on the final word. He wondered how long it would take for the words ‘traitor’ or ‘enemy’ to be uttered.

“Oh, will you shut up already?” Rose cut in crossly, to Scorpius’ surprise. Had she just stood up for him? 

“I had to spend the entire Christmas holiday with that tosser and I don’t need to be reminded about it.” 

Well, _that_ statement was not so surprising, he reflected wryly. 

“And I heard that today’s potion is a favourite for exams, so we need to _focus_.” And with that, Rose opened her notebook with a flourish and began scribbling.

\--

“How’s Divination like?” Albus asked one day during the Hogsmeade visit. Scorpius was a little surprised, since Albus didn’t seem like the kind of wizard who placed much importance on Seeing the future.

His eyes narrowed slightly. “Why, does Weasley now want to know my performance in the sole subject in which she’s _not_ competing against me?”

Albus grinned sheepishly. “Well, yeah, a little. But I’m curious as well.”

“With Professor Patil, it’s a lot of reading tea dregs, looking into crystal balls and doing horoscope charts.” Scorpius rattled off with a wave of his hand. “But with Professor Firenze, it’s more about astrology.”

“Which do you prefer?”

“Astrology,” Scorpius replied without hesitation, “and not just because I’m named after a constellation.” 

Albus had to grin at that, because he’d always thought nothing was worse than being named after two dead headmasters – until he met one Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. 

“Though I doubt half the class even gets what he says about the movement of planets when they’re busy mooning over him.” Scorpius scoffed.

“Girls like Firenze?” Albus cocked his head to the side as he considered the centaur’s physique. “But he’s _old_.”

Scorpius shrugged. “Apparently so. Girls are so silly.” He made that declaration just as they noticed a giggling bunch of girls step into Madame Puddifoot’s.

“I dunno, Rose isn’t like that.” Albus countered, though it was possibly true that his cousin was the only girl he knew well enough to say that about her. “Besides,” he continued before Scorpius could so astutely point that out, “maybe it’s because there aren’t any pretty professors around. My cousin Victoire used to get no less than three confessions a week.”

Scorpius shook his head dismissively, mentally condemning the fairer sex as a whole.

“Anyway, you’re coming to watch my game against Ravenclaw, right?” Albus asked.

“I don’t see why I should, considering how neither team is from Slytherin.” Scorpius drawled as he examined some chocolate. He looked up briefly to see Albus giving him a dry look, and sighed dramatically. “Alright. Just don’t expect me to wear anything red and gold.”

\--

“What did you get for the Herbology essay?” Rose yelled at Scorpius, who graced her with an incredulous look.

“Are you seriously asking me for my grades in the middle of a _Quidditch game_?” He yelled right back over the roar of the crowd of in the stands.

“Stop being a prat and just tell me!” She insisted, flicking her gaze back to the fourteen players flying over the pitch.

“Unbelievable.” He said to himself, electing to ignore her in favour of watching Albus hover around scanning for the Snitch.

“AND POTTER SCORES THE FIRST GOAL OF THE MATCH! 10-0!”

“Go James!” Rose screamed in unison with her cousins. “And you know I’ll find out anyway, so you should just tell me your grade now.”

Scorpius snorted and moved over to stand next to Louis Weasley instead.

\--

“Hey Rosie.” Lily greeted her cousin, whose slight jerk of the head was the only sign that she’d been acknowledged.

“Don’t bother, Lils.” Albus sighed. “She’s been like this for the past few days. The only time she talks is when she’s telling me that I need to study more for the exams.”

Lily grinned. “That’s because you _do_ need to.”

“ _I’m_ not taking eleven subjects just because I could.” Albus said pointedly with a sniff. “And Muggle Studies and Defense Against the Dark Arts are pretty manageable, so, really, it’s like I only need to study for seven subjects.”

Lily shook her head in wonder. “How on earth you managed to have two best friends like Rose and Scorpius and not be more hard-working, I’ll never know.” 

Albus gasped in outrage and attempted to give her a noogie, eliciting a strangled laugh from her.

\--

“Why does she keep doing that?” Scorpius whispered to Albus as they snacked on the couch of the Potter home, which Scorpius found to be more comfortable than his own. It was no surprise that he kept coming over during their summer holiday.

“Doing what?” Albus asked with his mouth full of cookies, resulting in a spray of crumbs that had Lily wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“Every time she comes over to your place, she looks like she’s staring at something on my forehead.” Scorpius shivered slightly.

Albus laughed, and then proceeded to choke on cookie bits. Scorpius thumped him on the back a little too enthusiastically. 

“Don’t tell her I told you, but she’s been trying to see if she’s taller than you.”

“As if that’s possible.” The blond boy scoffed. Then he paused for a moment. “She isn’t, is she?”

“If she was, she’d probably be rubbing it in your face by now.” Albus pointed out. “But you know how girls hit their growth spurts earlier. She’s already got a few centimetres on me – she might reach your height soon.”

“What an adorable rivalry the two of you have, Malfoy.” James suddenly appeared and slipped onto the sofa.

“He doesn’t like being called that.” Albus interjected.

“Really?” James raised a brow. 

“Do you like being called ‘Potter’?” Scorpius ventured.

James shrugged. “Only the professors call me that, and with alarming frequency.” Albus snorted. “But I see your point. Family names carry certain expectations. Scorpius, then?”

The Slytherin nodded, surprised that James Potter had understood so easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a Kudos if you like this story, as well as any comments/questions you may have!
> 
> Feel free to guess what position Albus plays on the Gryffindor team.


	4. 4th Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which History of Magic is easy unless you're a Malfoy. Also, more Quidditch is played.

“Well, that was cryptic.” Rose mused.

“Yeah.” Albus frowned as he dumped his bag in the overhead compartment. “What did Mum mean by us seeing Dad soon? Surely he doesn’t have Auror work at Hogwarts.”

“How cool would that be, though?” Lily clapped her hands in excitement. “Imagine being like Dad and Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, scrounging the depths of the castle for a hidden evil…”

“Or the Triwizard Tournament of 1994.” Hugo reminded her, and she nodded enthusiastically. “Though after what happened I doubt they’ll be in a hurry to reinstate that any time soon.”

Rose sighed softly, remembering how Uncle Harry had told them about the Tournament and the meaningless death of Cedric Diggory in the graveyard. For all the exciting adventures her parents had been through, they involved a lot of pain and misery which Rose had no desire to experience. She sighed again.

“Didn’t anyone teach you the polite thing to do when you see someone after a long break?” Scorpius raised a brow as he stood at the door of their carriage, having assumed that the sigh was for him.

“Please. I saw you more often than I saw most of my cousins.” Rose scoffed. “I hardly think you deserve an enthusiastic greeting.”

“Oh, how she wounds me.” Scorpius said dryly, earning a giggle from Lily and exasperated eye-rolling from Albus and Hugo. 

“Oi, Malfoy, either get in or move away.” Fred Weasley said amiably from behind the Slytherin boy, who complied by entering the carriage.

“Where’s James?” Lily asked Fred.

“I dunno, probably hiding from Emma somewhere on the train.” Fred waved a hand nonchalantly.

“Who’s Emma?” Scorpius whispered to Albus.

“Emily Wood, our team’s Keeper.” Albus explained. “James thinks she might be mad because he made Captain instead of her after David Smythe graduated.”

Scorpius tried to imagine getting angry at one of his Slytherin year-mates for becoming a prefect instead of him, and failed. He looked over to Rose, expecting her to feel the same, only to see her flipping through a textbook.

“Really, Weasley, I know I’m stiff competition, but studying on the Hogwarts Express is just sad.”

She glared at him. “I don’t need extra study time to beat you hollow, Malfoy.”

Fred leaned back in the seat, amused at the repartee going on in front of him. He took a look at Rose’s book and smiled. “Ah, to be a fourth-year again. History of Magic doesn’t get any easier. Enjoy it while it lasts, kiddo.”

Hugo leaned over to glance through the chapter titles. “Oh.”

“What?” Lily nudged him with her foot.

“It’s about the Second Wizarding War.” Hugo explained.

“In other words, bedtime stories for the Weasley-Potter clan.” Fred concluded smugly.

No one noticed Scorpius shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

\--

Despite the fact that Gryffindors and Slytherins no longer shared the same animosity to each other that they’d used to, it was common knowledge that their personalities tended to clash and that they generally didn’t like each other that much. 

It made Albus wonder who had decided to put them in Defence Against the Dark Arts together. He also wondered why the professor thought pairing each Gryffindor against a Slytherin to practice was a good idea. Perhaps he figured that they’d then be more serious about duelling each other.

Albus had to admit that it was definitely interesting to watch the duelling between one Scorpius Malfoy and one Rose Weasley, especially because neither of them was in a good mood. Albus wasn’t sure why Scorpius had entered the class giving off dark vibes, but he knew Rose was mad because she’d been paired up with Scorpius since the first class, and she’d be stuck with him for the rest of the year.

There wasn’t a single professor in Hogwarts who didn’t know about Rose’s rivalry with Scorpius over every single subject, which increased whenever they shared the same class. Rose was especially sensitive about DADA, because Scorpius tended to perform better than her at the practical aspect. Clearly Professor Hunt was looking for some entertainment when he’d paired them up.

It wasn’t obvious, but Albus could tell that Scorpius was holding back with his hexes while Rose tried to steady her Shield Charm. And Rose had clearly noticed it as well, judging by her narrowed eyes and flushed cheeks.

“Come on, Malfoy!” She pointed her wand at the blond boy. “What, are you afraid that my deflection will bounce back on you?”

Scorpius growled in annoyance, but the little duel had stirred up Rose’s temper beyond rudeness and straight into antagonism. Scorpius’ gaze flickered to Albus, as if wondering whether his friend would forgive him for hurting his cousin.

“Stop being such a coward and _hex_ me already!”

Then Scorpius’ expression changed and he flung out his wand and shot a Stinging Hex at Rose. She yelled the incantation to deflect it, but the force behind the hex cut through the patchy shield like a knife and hit her on the knee.

Rose resisted the urge to clutch her knee, angry at Scorpius for hexing her, and even angrier at herself for being unable to deflect the hex. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she raised her wand and sent a Jelly-legs jinx back at Scorpius, who was too surprised to even attempt deflecting it. 

The hexing continued for a while before Professor Hunt disarmed both of them and ordered them to sit at the back of the room, rather than disrupt the rest of the class who had been avidly watching them instead of practicing. 

“This is all your fault!” Rose hissed at Scorpius as she rubbed her now-swollen knee.

“Don’t blame me for your incompetence, Weasley.” Scorpius bit back. “It shouldn’t be a surprise to you that a _coward_ like me can pull off hex-deflection better than a Gryffindor like you can.”

“Better a brave Gryffindor than a jerk of a Slytherin.” The insult rolled off her tongue before she could take it back, having momentarily forgotten everything her mother had lectured her about inter-house harmony. 

“That’s how it’s always been, hasn’t it?” He rolled his eyes. “Gryffindor versus Slytherin, brave versus cowardly, right versus wrong. Lord Voldemort came from Slytherin while Harry Potter came from Gryffindor – a classic representation of good versus evil.”

Rose frowned in confusion. “What are you talking about? I didn’t say that.”

“You don’t need to when it’s all written down in history.” He replied tartly. And before she could question him further, the class was dismissed and Scorpius left without so much as a backward glance at her.

\--

“Scorpius is here.” Albus whispered to Rose after having seen the Slytherin boy passing by their bookshelf out of the corner of his eye.

Rose resisted the urge to turn around to look and merely nodded. If she hadn’t started tapping her fingers on the ledge of the bookshelf, Albus would have thought she genuinely didn’t care.

“I’m going to talk to him about what happened.” Albus informed Rose, expecting her to start ranting about how Scorpius was a jerk and that she couldn’t be bothered with what was going on in that blond head of his.

To his surprise, Rose nodded at him. “Sounds like a good idea. Go ahead; I’ll take your books to our desk for you.”

Albus frowned slightly. “Aren’t you mad at him?”

“Of course I’m mad!” Rose replied sharply. “The guy hexed me, started duelling, and then started accusing me of saying things I didn’t mean!”

“Right.”

“Look, I know it was partially my fault for having a lousy Shield to begin with,” She rolled her eyes exasperatedly, “and for continuing to argue with him. And when he gets out of his foul mood I’ll apologise. But I think he needs someone to talk to him, and you’re probably the best person to do so.”

“When did you become so mature, Rosie?” Albus asked in slight wonderment.

Rose rolled her eyes and gestured for him to go. Albus walked out of the row they were at and took a couple of steps before realising that Scorpius was standing in the next row near the bookshelf separating him and Rose.

“Hey.” Albus greeted him awkwardly, wondering if the other boy had heard their entire conversation.

“Hey.” Scorpius replied.

“So, uh, about what happened during DADA…” Albus dove straight in, unable to think of a way to smoothly introduce the topic.

“I was just in a bad mood, okay?” Scorpius interrupted him. “I’d really rather not talk about it.”

Albus was sure that there was a whole lot that Scorpius wasn’t admitting, if Rose’s account of their argument was anything to go by. But the other boy didn’t appear to be ready to volunteer that information, so he decided to let it be.

\--

Rose and Albus were heading with the other Gryffindor fourth-years to a different classroom from their usual History of Magic classroom, and muttering among themselves about this mysterious change of plans. Their professor had merely informed them that there was a guest teacher for today’s lesson. As they approached the classroom they were surprised to see the Slytherin and Hufflepuff fourth-years as well, since they normally only had History of Magic with Ravenclaw.

After the forty-odd students had sat down, Professor Landon hushed them from their idle chatter. “Children,” He said, which always annoyed Albus because he made them sound like infants, “today we have a very special guest teacher, who has kindly taken time out of his busy schedule to share his insights on the history we’ve been learning this year.”

Then Albus’ jaw dropped, and he could hear his cousin give a small gasp beside him, which was eclipsed by the much louder gasps by most of the students in the classroom as the Chosen One walked into their classroom. “Dad!” His look of consternation only worsened when several of his classmates turned to glance at him as if comparing him to his father. As if he wasn’t aware of how much he resembled his father, he mentally grumbled.

“So this is what he meant that day at the train station.” Rose whispered excitedly. Albus nodded, still in shock, and less pleased to see his dad than Rose was. He bet she wouldn’t be as happy if it was Uncle Ron or Aunt Hermione teaching the class. 

Harry Potter smiled at the class, his gaze lingering briefly on his son, his niece and the son of his childhood nemesis. Scorpius stiffened when he saw the older man look at him, wondering if the Man-Who-Lived-Twice was judging him for being Draco Malfoy’s son, and missed the first bit of Harry’s talk.

“…and it seems a little strange to call it history when I was actually there, but there you have it.” Harry smiled again. “And rather than give you a longwinded account of what happened – which you’ve probably already heard in class – I thought it might be more interesting if you ask me questions about the war and I’ll try to answer as best I can.”

Albus was sure that there were a fair few who wouldn’t mind hearing the Chosen One narrate his experience of the war. 

A Ravenclaw student raised his hand, and Harry gestured for him to ask his question. “Some sources claim that the Chosen One could have been another person who also fulfilled the prophecy made by Seer Trelawney. Is that true?”

Harry blinked, mildly surprised that such a question had been brought up. “Well, before I answer that, may I ask everyone why certain people – such as your colleague here – use the phrase ‘The Chosen One’?”

Rose’s hand shot up in the air, along with a couple of others more slowly. “Yes, Rose?” Harry nodded at his niece.

“It refers to the prophecy about Voldemort marking him as his equal, which means that Voldemort chose the person who had the power to vanquish him.” Rose said.

“So it could be that I was chosen out of a lot of other people who fulfilled the prophecy, or simply that Voldemort acknowledged me as an enemy rather than ignored me.” Harry presented the two options to the class. “And while it makes for an intriguing question whether some other person could have been targeted by Voldemort, it can only remain speculation, and will not change the events of history.” Harry knew it was a cop-out answer to a fair question, but he didn’t think Neville would appreciate being the focus of attention by the students for the wrong reasons.

There were a few more questions about what it was like to live under Voldemort’s short reign of terror, what happened to the Horcruxes and what his experience of death had been like. The questions were reaching the end of the war, and finally someone asked about what happened to all the Death Eaters who hadn’t been killed in the war.

Harry began giving them his usual Head Auror’s speech about the steps they had taken after the Battle of Hogwarts to chase down the remaining Death Eaters for incarceration at Azkaban. Then he noticed several students turning to glance at Scorpius Malfoy while he was talking, and couldn’t help but feel sorry for the blond boy, who was clearly aware of what his schoolmates were thinking.

“What about the Malfoys?”

Harry nearly winced when a Hufflepuff girl asked the question he’d been hoping wouldn’t be raised. His gaze involuntarily went to Scorpius, whose cheeks had gone pink and knuckles white. Rose and Albus looked at him sympathetically as well. The thing was, the Hufflepuff girl who’d raised the question was Muggleborn and was genuinely curious about what had happened to the Malfoy family, as far as Rose could tell. She probably just wasn’t sensitive enough to realise what a horrible question it was for Scorpius to hear.

“Well, what do you know about the Malfoys?” Harry asked her in return.

“The textbook says that Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater,” the girl paused as she flipped through her book, “that Voldemort used their house as a base, and that Narcissa Malfoy lied to Voldemort about you being dead.”

“Correct.” Harry nodded, recognising that the girl probably wasn’t very familiar with the history. “They also abandoned Voldemort’s cause at the end. Lucius Malfoy also aided the Auror Department by helping us to capture many Death Eaters as I mentioned just now. As a result, the Malfoys’ crimes were pardoned.”

“My mum was at the Battle of Hogwarts, and she says that they only claimed to be on our side after you defeated Lord Voldermort.” A Gryffindor boy grumbled, and a few voices echoed in agreement, the unspoken statement being that it was unfair how they alone had been pardoned.

“So, basically they were cowards who only picked the winning side to save their skins.” Scorpius said clearly, as most of the class turned to stare at him. “That’s what you’re all saying.”

There was an awkward silence following his statement, broken by Harry clearing his throat. “Perhaps before we start drawing our own conclusions about events that happened before all of you were born, maybe I should ask what you bright young wizards and witches would have done if you’d lived during that time.”

“I would have fought on your side, like my mum did.” The same Gryffindor boy replied promptly.

“It’s extremely easy to look back on the Second Wizarding War and say that you would die fighting against Voldemort’s cause. But if you had been one of the students at Hogwarts while Death Eaters were teaching, would you have stood up against their torture of Muggle-loving students and risked being tortured yourself?”

The boy remained quiet.

“If you were the head of a pureblood family, and simply going along with Voldemort’s cause meant that you wouldn’t be tortured and then killed, along with your entire family, would you be so quick to oppose him?” Harry continued asking. 

Now the rest of the students who had been feeling equally self-righteous were looking down at their desks. Albus felt like cheering his father on.

“Narcissa Malfoy lied to Voldemort’s face because she wanted to save her son, Draco.” Harry said. “She loved her family enough to risk being killed by him for insubordination. And I don’t know whether your class has gone through what happened at Malfoy Manor, but Draco didn’t sell me out to Bellatrix Lestrange even though he could have done so, and I’d have been dead within the hour.”

Deciding to leave it at that, he checked his pocket watch. “Well, I need to be returning before my wife thinks I’ve been coerced into joining the teaching staff here.” He earned a weak chuckle from some of the students. “So I think I can take one or two last questions.”

Albus and Rose both raised their hands, much to Harry’s interest. “Okay, Rose first.”

“What was the ideology behind the war?” Rose asked, to the surprise of many, since she clearly knew what the war had been about.

Harry wondered what she was getting at. “Basically, it came down to an argument about wizards being superior if they were from a pureblood family, as opposed to having any Muggle heredity.” Rose nodded and Harry looked at his second son. “Albus?”

Albus paused for a moment, as if to collect his thoughts. “Following from your answer, how do we prevent such a war from happening again?”

Then Harry had to smile, because his son and niece were indeed trying to make a point. Even Scorpius had stopped scowling and was flicking his gaze between his two friends and Harry. “There are many ways in which we try to prevent wars from happening. But ideologically, I think we need to remind people time and again that people should not be judged by whose family they were born into, but by who they are and the decisions they make.”

\--

“You could have told us you were coming, Dad.” Albus grumbled half-heartedly as they walked out of the classroom.

“I thought it’d be a nice surprise.” Harry shrugged, and then a figure in the corner of his eye caught his attention. “Hello, Scorpius.”

The blond boy stiffened slightly before registering the friendly smile on Harry’s face. “Hello, Mr Potter.”

“I hear you’ve been giving our Rosie a run for her money, eh?”

“Uncle Harry!” Rose gasped indignantly, and Scorpius couldn’t help but smile.

“She’s still the smartest witch of our year, sir.” Scorpius admitted readily. “Albus, on the other hand…”

“Hey!” Now it was Albus’ turn to start glaring. 

“…is excelling on the Quidditch pitch.” Scorpius finished smoothly, at which Albus punched his arm and Rose and Harry laughed.

“That’s always good to hear.” Harry grinned. “What did you think of my talk just now?”

Scorpius paused for a few seconds. “It was good, sir.” He finally said. “And very kind, regarding my family.”

“I like to think of myself as an unbiased person.” Harry replied cheerfully. Before he could continue, a mini-explosion was heard from one of the higher floors, followed by some whooping and commotion. Then two boys came running down the staircase, only to halt in front of them.

“James, Fred.” Harry said pleasantly.

“ _Dad_!” James gaped, and Albus wished he had a camera to capture the utterly shocked expression on his older brother’s face.

“Hey, Uncle Harry.” Fred recovered more quickly than his cousin and gave his uncle a weak grin. “Fancy seeing you here at Hogwarts!”

“I was just giving the fourth-year students a short talk on the Second Wizarding War.” Harry replied. “Would you like to tell me what just happened up there?” He lifted his eyebrows in the direction of the source of the explosion, which was now emitting a strangely-coloured gas.

Scorpius found it rather amusing to see two tall sixteen-year old boys squirming under the scrutinizing gaze of the Head Auror. 

\--

 

“You know, Mum mentioned once that she had to write the same essay on ‘Why Muggles Need Electricity’.” Rose informed Albus and Scorpius as they left the classroom. “And while I guess that was fine back then in the nineties, I think they ought to change our essay title now to ‘What Muggles Have Achieved with Electricity’.” 

“Really?” Albus raised a brow as he contemplated the lesson they’d just had. “But Professor MacDonald said that they use electricity for things like lights and listening to music and all kinds of stuff which we can achieve quite easily with magic.”

“Yes, but haven’t you seen what Muggles have been able to do with their technology these past few years?” Rose started waving her hands around excitedly. “They have these handheld phones which let them see and talk to each other even from different countries around the world! They use their computers to send messages in an instant – which is faster than owl post!”

“Well, yeah…” Albus tried to remember what a computer was, “…but do these computers stand there and peck the recipient until they reply?”

Rose rolled her eyes exasperatedly. “Anyway, Hugo agrees with me, and-”

“Hugo doesn’t even _take_ Muggle Studies!”

“Not yet. And he’s always really interested in our Gramps’ Muggle stuff, so he knows more about them than most wizards do.”

“Why would your mother bother taking Muggle Studies?” Scorpius interjected, unable to help his curiosity, particularly after Rose mentioned her Muggle grandparents.

“Oh, she wanted to study Muggles from a wizarding perspective.” Rose shrugged. “And it wouldn’t have been difficult for her to do well in it, compared to most of her peers.”

“It wouldn’t have been hard for her to do well in _any_ subject, I think.” Albus replied dryly. “Uncle Ron, on the other hand…” He shared a laugh with Rose.

“Having Muggle relatives would make it so much easier.” Scorpius said almost wistfully, and then realised that Rose and Albus were giving him rather odd looks. “What?”

“It’s just a little funny to hear someone from such a pureblood family practically wish he was related to Muggles.” Rose explained.

Scorpius frowned. “Why, because all purebloods hate Muggles?”

“No, of course not!” Albus assured him quickly. “That’s not what we meant.”

“But it was, wasn’t it?” Scorpius retorted angrily. “The point is, I’m never going to escape this stupid prejudice against my family, even if I’m the only Slytherin in our year taking Muggle Studies!”

“You know what?” Rose burst out irritably, to Albus’ surprise. “If you’re going to get your knickers in a twist every time you think someone’s making a slight against you or your family then you should just… just go and be a crybaby somewhere else!”

“ _What_?” Scorpius gaped at her.

“I am sick and tired of your little hissy fits about poor little Scorpius Malfoy and how it’s not his fault he was born into a Death Eater family and how unfair it is that everyone hates him because of it!” Rose made air quotes with her fingers. “Sometimes you just need to stop being so sensitive, suck it up and prove people wrong! And _sometimes_ , people aren’t actually insulting you!”

She stormed off down the corridor, leaving two shocked boys standing in her wake. 

“I… what… she…” Scorpius gasped, at a loss for words for once.

“Wow.” Albus nodded slowly. “Girls, huh?”

\--

It was now obvious that Rose and Scorpius weren’t speaking to each other. Despite the fact that they hadn’t exactly been friends before this – more like bickering acquaintances with a mutual best friend, instead of their usual barbs at each other, they simply pretended like the other didn’t exist.

Albus had given up trying to be the mediator between them, and instead turned his attention towards Quidditch, to the delight of James. Albus also took the opportunity to get to know the other boys in his dorm better, which was something he hadn’t done much since he always hung out with Rose.

“You know, as their best friend, shouldn’t you be doing something to help them resolve their differences?” Fred asked one day after Quidditch practice.

“Well…” Albus sighed.

“Oi, don’t tell him that!” James admonished his cousin. “The less time he spends worrying about them, the more time he has to worry about catching the Snitch.”

“That’s a ridiculous thing to say, Potter.” Emily Wood shook her head disapprovingly.

“Uh, which Potter are you referring to?” James asked innocently, even though Albus hadn’t actually said anything.

“The stupider one.” She deadpanned, eliciting a hearty chuckle from Fred and the other Beater, Dylan Peake.

“I believe that would be you.” Albus said to James cheerfully.

“And what makes my advice so ridiculous, Wood?” James raised a brow challengingly.

“Because Albus doesn’t _just_ need to focus on catching the Snitch.” Emily said as she kept her broom in her locker. Albus stood there waiting to hear her advice. “He also needs to focus on how the game is going. A Seeker can contribute to the rest of the gameplay as well if he’s skilled enough. If you remember the latest Wasps versus Harpies game, you’ll notice how their Seeker Johnson managed to-”

Emily’s Scottish brogue got thicker as she started describing the game in detail, and James and Fred joined in. Albus groaned. Seriously, his team wasn’t being helpful at _all_.

\--

“No offense, Al, but I’ll be cheering for Slytherin.” Scorpius grinned as he clapped Albus on the back. “But to show that I’m still your mate, I hope you catch the Snitch even though Slytherin wins.”

Albus grinned back. “Thanks, that means a lot.”

“Please, Gryffindor is totally going to destroy the Slytherin team on the pitch today.” Rose sniffed from her seat next to Albus at the breakfast table.

“Of course, we can’t help it that our Slytherin team is just better overall.” Scorpius said airily without addressing Rose at all. 

“And I’m really impressed by our Gryffindor team, because no one’s worked harder than them this year.” Rose continued blithely. “James really is a good captain, don’t you think?” She asked Albus sweetly.

“Aww, how nice to hear my baby cousin praising me.” James appeared behind them and patted Rose on the head. “Though it hurts a little knowing that you’re just doing it for Scorpius’ benefit.”

“That’s not true!” Rose insisted.

“Come on, Al, time to go.” James jerked his head in the direction of the Great Hall’s doors. “No more fraternizing with the enemy. We’ve got a game to win.”

Scorpius automatically flinched at the word ‘enemy’, even as Albus grabbed his toast and hurried after his brother. He promptly felt foolish for thinking the term referred to anything other than his being a Slytherin. Obviously this was what Rose had meant when she’d yelled at him about being overly sensitive. And as much as he’d been trying to deny it for the past few weeks, he knew deep down that Rose was right.

“I’m sorry.” The words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

Rose looked up from her breakfast in confusion, before ascertaining that he was indeed talking to her and not some other Gryffindor he needed to apologise to. “What?” She replied intelligently.

It pained Scorpius to swallow his pride and admit that he was wrong, but he knew it was the right thing to do. “You… you weren’t wrong about me being too sensitive and constantly feeling sorry for myself about people hating my family.”

Now Rose was staring at him with wide eyes, and she nodded silently for him to continue.

“And maybe I needed to hear it from someone to realise that I’d forgotten my initial goal – to work hard so that people recognise me for me and not my father or my family. So, I guess I should thank you for saying all those things.” He ended wryly.

“I’m sorry too.” She rushed out. “I meant what I said, but I could have been a lot nicer about how I said it. I shouldn’t have yelled at you and called you a crybaby.” Rose smiled tentatively, receiving a smile in return.

“So… we’re okay?” Scorpius gestured between himself and her.

“Yeah.” Rose nodded. “I mean, we’re not really _friends_ , but I guess we’re not… enemies.”

“Sure.” Scorpius shrugged. 

\--

Albus blinked rapidly as he took in his surroundings, which looked awfully like the hospital wing.

“Oh, you’re awake!” He heard a familiar voice and turned, wincing as pain flared up as he moved. “How are you feeling?” Rose asked anxiously.

“It hurts everywhere.” Albus groaned. “What happened?”

Rose looked a little uncomfortable. “Well, you got hit by a Bludger during the game and crashed into the stands.”

Now bits of the event were starting to trickle back into his memory. “Oh.” Then he realised what that meant and grimaced. “How did the rest of the game go?”

“Um…” Rose looked uncertain. “I left after you got hit and I’ve been here since.” Then she looked up and saw someone coming in. “Scorpius. How did the game end?”

Scorpius came over to Albus’ bed. “Slytherin won 200-110. Sorry about that hit, mate.” He patted Albus on the shoulder.

It only vaguely registered to him that the two of them were talking to each other again. Albus didn’t say anything, but the guilt was written clearly on his face, and it got worse when he heard the rest of the team trooping in. He was greeted by a chorus of concerned queries and well-wishes.

“We’ve been ordered to tell you not to beat yourself up over this game, Al.” Peake assured him with a weak grin.

Albus couldn’t bring himself to return the smile. “Where’s James?”

“We think he’s trying to drown himself in the showers.” Claire O’Mara, a seventh-year Chaser informed him. “Fred and Em are making sure he doesn’t.”

Of course he was, Albus thought dismally. This was the first game Gryffindor had lost since James had been made captain, and his brother probably felt worse about the loss than he did. For once, Albus wished that catching the Snitch wasn’t worth so many points.

“It’s not your fault.” O’Mara said sternly, knowing exactly what Albus was thinking. “We lost as a team, and we’re just going to have to get better for our next game against Ravenclaw.”

Scorpius felt a little uncomfortable as the sole Slytherin there, and quietly slipped out of the hospital wing.

“He’ll be alright, you know.” Rose called from a few metres behind him. Scorpius turned around to give her a curious look. “You don’t need to be worried about that.”

It was uncanny how well she read him, Scorpius mused.

\--

“What was the Yule Ball like, Mum?” Rose asked curiously as she snuggled under an old blanket with a mug of hot chocolate. The other children looked to her mother expectantly.

“It was a night to remember.” Hermione chuckled as she fondly recalled her fourth year at Hogwarts, many Christmases ago. “The beautiful lights and decorations and music – it was like a fairy tale come to life.”

“What’s a fairy tale?” Scorpius ventured.

“Fairy tales are Muggle stories involving what they think are fictitious magical creatures.” Hugo informed him, eager to share his knowledge about Muggles. “And they always have happy endings.”

“Did you and Uncle Ron go together?” Albus asked next.

Hermione snorted inelegantly. “At that time your Uncle Ron wasn’t mature enough to realise I was a girl.”

“Hey!” Ron gasped indignantly. “At least I didn’t go to the ball with the enemy.”

“The Tri-wizard Tournament is all about international magical cooperation, Ron.” Hermione rolled her eyes, before realising the children had no idea what she was referring to. “I went with the Durmstrang Champion, Viktor Krum.”

“Viktor Krum? You went to the ball with the Bulgarian National Seeker?” James gaped at his aunt, finally giving up on pretending that he wasn’t listening to her story.

Hermione blushed slightly, eliciting a scowl from Ron. “Yes, well, he asked me to go with him, and I said yes. Your father wasn’t too happy about it, obviously.” She grinned at Hugo and Rose.

“Because you were fraternizing with the enemy as opposed to supporting Harry as the Champion.” Ron stuck to his story stubbornly. 

“Don’t drag me into this.” Harry warned him, though he was clearly entertained by memories of that night as well.

“It would be kind of nice to have a ball, don’t you think?” Roxanne sighed.

“Balls are only for fourth-years and above.” Rose patted her cousin on the head in a commiserating manner.

“Ugh, no thanks.” Albus shook his head. “It sounds like a terribly stressful thing to ask a girl to a ball.”

“You got that right, son.” Harry agreed fervently.

\--

Rose, Albus and Scorpius made a beeline for their usual study booth in the library to prep for the upcoming finals, when Rose noticed the occupants of another table. “Hey, it’s James and Emily.”

“James Potter is studying in the library?” Scorpius asked sceptically. While he wasn’t exactly friends with the older Potter boy, he was pretty sure he had a good idea of James’ attitude towards studying, based on what he heard from Albus and Rose.

“Huh.” Albus went over to see just what the two sixth-year students were doing.

“Perhaps he’s finally realised how much easier it is to concentrate in the library than in our common room, where he and Fred normally do their work.” Rose suggested logically as they dumped their bags and books at their table. 

“Or perhaps he and Wood are strategizing for the next Quidditch game.” Scorpius countered, partially because that seemed far more likely, and partially just to disagree with Rose.

To his slight surprise, Rose’s mouth twitched as she suppressed a smile. “They _are_ a little one-track minded about that sport, aren’t they.”

But he recovered quickly. “I’m surprised he hasn’t invited Wood over for your family Quidditch matches. She’d be a far better asset to his team than I currently am.” Even though he considered Rose his ultimate rival and was determined to show himself to be superior to her, Quidditch was one of the few things he would admit to being terrible at.

Rose nodded solemnly. “I shall suggest it to him. Maybe he’ll finally have a chance at beating the adults.”

Albus returned with the oddest look on his face. “They _are_ studying. Rather, he’s helping her with Transfiguration and she’s helping him with Charms. Not Quidditch.” The last part baffled him the most.

“N.E.W.T classes must be pretty demanding.” Scorpius commented offhandedly, though he was really more interested in his Potions revision than in what Potter and Wood were studying.

“That reminds me.” Rose suddenly looked up from her book. “We should start preparing for OWLs this summer holiday, so that we won’t be overwhelmed by the workload in fifth year.”

Albus groaned.

\--

“Everyone, we have an announcement to make.” Teddy informed the family at one of their gatherings.

Rose’s gaze automatically flicked to Victoire’s hand, where she saw the sparkle of a diamond and nearly squealed in delight. Lily and Roxanne took a couple of seconds more to notice the ring, and they _did_ squeal.

“We’re engaged.” Victoire beamed happily, and the announcement was met with cheers and hoots from the kids and happy smiles from the older generation.

“When are you getting married, Tori?” Lily immediately asked, with visions of a beautiful wedding filling her mind.

Teddy and Victoire shared a look. “We were thinking of having it next summer when all of you are back from Hogwarts.”

“But that’s so far away.” Molly commented, looking a little disappointed.

“All ze more time to prepare ze perfect wedding.” Aunt Fleur declared happily. 

“Luckily, the brother of the bride generally doesn’t have much to do.” Louis whispered to Fred, who fist-bumped him discreetly.

The wedding was all they could talk about for the rest of the night. Teddy slid into the empty spot next to James and Albus. “You guys are coming, right?” He asked teasingly.

“Sure, but I feel I must warn you that Fred and I might feel the need to contribute some, ah, things to make sure that your wedding is a memorable one.” James advised him with a twinkle in his eye.

“Then you’ll have to answer to your aunt.” Teddy gestured towards Aunt Fleur, who was going over potential decorations with their mother and Aunt Audrey.

Albus threw a sidelong glance at his brother. “You might want to reconsider those pranks. Or else make sure you don’t get caught.”

James clapped his brother on the back. “Spoken like a true Weasley.”

“Anyway, even though it’s a long way off, I wanted to let you guys know that Victoire and I are happy for you to bring plus ones to the wedding.” Teddy told them. “As long as you let us know in advance so that we can arrange the seats and food.”

Albus made a face. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary, Teddy.” He was still at an age where he didn’t think much of girls. They were too difficult to figure out and deal with – with the exception of his cousins.

“What about you, James?” Teddy nudged the older Potter. 

“No one I can think of, really.” James shrugged nonchalantly.

“What about Emily?” Rose butted in, having listened in on their conversation.

“ _Wood_?” James echoed incredulously. “What for? Oh, will there be Quidditch at the wedding?” He asked mock-seriously.

“Who’s Emily?” Teddy ignored James’ question in favour of his own.

“She’s the Gryffindor Keeper.” Albus informed him, and frowned slightly at Rose for her ridiculous suggestion. “But they’re not going out.”

“Maybe Fred will be my plus one.” James considered this option.

“No thanks, mate.” His cousin overheard them. “I love you and all, but that’s just a little inappropriate.”

“My heart is broken forever.” James declared theatrically.

Meanwhile, Teddy had turned to Rose to ask a little more about this mysterious Emily. And then he surprised Rose a little by saying, “You get a plus one too.”

“Wait, she gets a plus two?” Fred demanded. “That’s not fair.”

And while Teddy continued to banter with the boys, Rose found herself inadvertently thinking about Scorpius. But that made no sense at all, and so she decided to forget about it.


	5. 5th Year - Part A

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which 5th Year isn't easy for Rose, _Romeo and Juliet_ is debated and more Quidditch is played.

Scorpius pulled the compartment door open and counted the number of Weasley cousins in the compartment. “Where’s Albus?” He blurted out when he noticed that his best friend was missing.

“What, not even a hello first?” Lily scoffed as she put a hand over her heart. “I’m wounded.”

It was perhaps at this point that Scorpius realised how comfortable he’d grown around the Weasley-Potter clan. It seemed that all the etiquette which had been drilled into him by his parents had managed to vanish. “I apologise for my lack of manners.” He said elegantly, eliciting a snort from Rose, who had barely given him a glance before returning to her book. “How are you, Lily?”

“I’m very well, thank you for asking.” Lily replied in a snooty attitude, before laughing.

“Albus went for a Gryffindor Quidditch team meeting.” Hugo informed Scorpius without tearing his gaze away from his Muggle Studies textbook.

Scorpius thought it was a little funny how similar Rose and Hugo looked when they were both engrossed in reading. “A Quidditch team meeting on the Hogwarts Express?”

“James has gone crazy this year.” Lily shook her head. “I really don’t see how they can start strategizing for gameplays when they need to find a new Chaser first.”

“Well, I hope he doesn’t forget to release Albus for the Prefects meeting later.” Scorpius fingered the shiny new badge on his uniform.

“It still amazes me how Professor McGonagall thought it would be wise to appoint you as a prefect.” Rose said.

“She must be an excellent judge of character.” Scorpius shrugged and noticed the same badge on Rose’s uniform. “Though perhaps she had a momentary lapse when she picked _you_ to be one.”

“It’s hard to believe you could possibly be a role model to the first years.” Rose retorted.

“We’ll see how cocky you are one month later when you’re hopelessly trying to juggle your prefect duties along with trying to maintain your grades in all your subjects.” Scorpius shot back, feeling a little satisfied when he saw Rose scowl.

“What do you think, Lily?” Rose asked her cousin.

Lily’s eyes widened as she glanced back and forth between the two fifth years. “I think…” They both leaned in unconsciously. “…that you’re both mad if you think I’m going to answer that question.”

\--

This year, other than requiring a Chaser, James was also looking to train up reserve players for all the spots. He didn’t want to have a repeat of what happened last year with Al and the Bludger. Furthermore, three of them would be graduating at the end of the year, which would leave the next captain attempting to rebuild a new team with little time to spare unless they started recruiting early.

So when he posted the notice for Quidditch try-outs for all team positions in the common room, he had expected a big turnout. He hadn’t expected to see his baby sister among them.

“Did you know Lily was thinking of trying out for the team this year?” James pulled Albus aside to ask.

“Uh, I don’t think she mentioned it.” Albus tried to recall. “But I remember her practicing with Mum during the holidays while you were helping Uncle George at the shop.” He looked at James’ pinched expression and frowned. “Don’t you _want_ her to try out? She’s good!”

“Are you afraid of picking her because she’s your sister?” Peake suddenly asked, having heard the brothers’ conversation. “Because we all know how much you want to win the Cup this year, and we’ll happily sit on anyone who says you play favourites.”

“That’s not it.” James sighed. “And anyone who has the guts to say that to my face can kiss my-”

“No need to be rude, Potter.” Emily interrupted him. And then she added quietly, “You can’t protect her from everything, you know.”

Then Albus recalled how worried James had been when he’d had his Bludger accident last year, and how he’d written a note to their parents to apologise for not taking better care of his younger brother during the game.

“I know.” James pasted on a smile that fooled no one, and strode towards the younger students. “Alright, listen up! Anyone who’s not a Gryffindor can leave right now. The rest of you, give me five laps around the pitch!”

And so it began.

\--

Despite what his mum liked to say about boys being clueless, Albus could feel that something was wrong with Rose. Oh, she continued in the same routine of answering all the questions in class, studying in the library, carrying out her prefect patrols and cheering for him at his matches, but there was something different about her whole demeanour.

He tried to brush it off as her simply being a little more stressed by the workload in fifth year, but when she didn’t participate in the common room party after Gryffindor’s win against Hufflepuff, Albus was sure that it was serious. Even James, who was less sensitive than Albus and had way more on his plate had noticed it.

Albus vaguely wondered whether it was simply that Rose was crushing on some boy who didn’t return her feelings. If all their older female cousins hadn’t already graduated from Hogwarts, he’d have asked one of them to talk to her. As it was, it seemed like it was up to him.

The thing is, Rose was so busy that it seemed impossible for him to find a good time to talk to her. In the end, Albus resorted to making up an excuse to swap prefect patrols with Rose’s patrol partner, in order to have those two hours together.

“So, anything new?” He started lamely.

“New?” Rose looked confused as they walked down the corridor. “You mean regarding patrols?”

Albus felt like slapping his forehead. “I mean, is there anything new with you?”

“Not really.” Rose shrugged. “Things have been according to routine lately. Why?”

“I just thought you seemed a little…stressed lately, that’s all.” Albus shrugged back at her. “Can’t I ask how my favourite cousin is going?”

Rose rolled her eyes. “I’m only your favourite cousin because I lend you my notes.”

“That’s not true!” Albus protested, before remembering his original purpose. “But it can’t be easy with all the homework and prefect duties as well.”

“All that applies to you, plus you have Quidditch to worry about.” Rose pointed out. “Are you sure _you’re_ okay?”

“Yes I am, and stop trying to change the subject.” He replied crossly. “Look, I’m just concerned about whether you’re coping with everything, alright?”

Rose swallowed the sharp retort that had been on the tip of her tongue. “I’m really okay, Al. If I need help with anything, you’re the first person I’ll go to, alright?”

“Fine.” Albus smiled. “As long as it isn’t about Potions.”

\--

“Uncle Harry! Aunt Ginny!” Rose forced her way through the stands to reach them. “I didn’t know you were coming for the match!”

“Well, we were able to take some time off, and we thought the kids might appreciate us cheering for them.” Harry smiled.

“You’re looking rather peaky, my dear.” Ginny chucked her chin. “Are you getting enough food and rest?”

“Of course I am.” Rose quickly smiled back at them. “I’m just nervous about the game.”

The abrupt sound of the commentator’s voice brought their attention back to the pitch. “And leading the Gryffindor team is James Potter in his second year as Captain! I give you, Potter, O’Brien, Potter, Weasley, Peake, Wood, and Potter! That’s three Potters in one game, ladies and gentlemen, what a sight!”

Harry was almost beside himself in excitement at seeing all three of his children playing for the same team that he and Ginny were once a part of. He glanced at Ginny and found a similarly proud smile on her face.

Rose looked at both of them and briefly wondered whether her dad wished he could see _his_ kids both play Quidditch on the same team as well. Hugo was actually a decent Beater, but there were many other talented and far keener players in Ravenclaw – which was why Hugo hadn’t bothered to try out for his team, and was instead in the stands cheering for them.

“And James Potter scores the first goal for Gryffindor, bringing the score to 10-0!”

“Yeah!” Harry cheered unabashedly. “That’s my boy!”

It was quite possibly the most thrilling game Rose reckoned she’d been to, even as Emily Wood saved a goal and tossed the Quaffle back to Lily, who zoomed off with it and got into a formation with O’Brien and James.

“Nice save.” Harry squinted a little. “That’s Oliver’s daughter, if I remember correctly.”

“Good formation.” Ginny commented as she kept her eyes glued to the three Chasers, who were currently being shadowed by the Ravenclaw Chasers. A Bludger managed to whizz past one of them, throwing her off momentarily. “And a nice hit by Freddie – I must remember to tell George and Angie.”

Lily made an attempt at a goal through the right hoop, but it was blocked by the Ravenclaw Keeper doing some complicated twist. “Good try, Lily!” Ginny hollered while clapping her hands.

“Hey.” Rose looked to her right to see Scorpius squeezing in to stand next to her. “What did I miss?”

“James scored the first goal.” Harry informed him, his eyes not leaving the 14 players over the pitch. “Gryffindor leads 10-0.”

“Mr Potter?” Scorpius said in surprise. “Mrs Potter?”

“Hello dear.” Ginny spared him a quick smile before turning back to the game. “Lily needs to put her back into it.” She muttered to Harry. “She’s going to tire out her wrist like that. How has James been training her?”

“They came to watch Lily’s first game.” Rose informed Scorpius, rather unnecessarily.

Scorpius blinked. “Didn’t she play during their game against Hufflepuff?”

“No, the other reserve, Edward Bell, got to play during the first match because he was better during practices.” Rose explained. “But James let her play this game because she improved.”

“Oh, right.” Scorpius felt a little embarrassed for not knowing that. Albus had probably mentioned it to him before, but between all the work he was doing this year, it was hard to keep track of things like this.

“GOAL!”

\--

“So, Rosie-posy.” Fred drawled as she entered the common room with Albus and Scorpius. “Do you have something you’d like to tell us?”

Rose stared at her cousin oddly. “Okay. You have dirt on your nose.”

Fred frowned for a moment and rubbed at his nose before resuming his grin. “Anything you’d like to tell us about a certain Jeremy Goldstein?” He clarified.

“Who’s Jeremy Goldstein?” Scorpius looked confused.

“Isn’t he a sixth year?” Albus hazarded. “Not in Gryffindor, for sure.”

“No Fred, I really can’t think of anything.” Rose rolled her eyes.

“Really?” James put in. “Not even about how he asked you out to Hogsmeade?”

“He did?” Albus stared at Rose, who was now looking slightly flushed.

“Who _is_ this guy?” Scorpius repeated, still a little bewildered.

“I know!” Lily clapped her hands as she remembered. “He’s that Ravenclaw sixth year who’s really into Muggle stuff. Hugo has all these long discussions with him about inventing machines for wizards to use.” She giggled a little. “He’s cute, Rose.”

“You are too young to be calling anyone cute.” James said dismissively. “So is Rose, for that matter.” He added thoughtfully. “Maybe we need to have a word with this bloke.”

“It doesn’t matter if he’s cute, alright?” Rose threw up her hands in the air in exasperation. “I barely even _know_ him.”

“So…you said no?” Albus guessed.

“Yes.”

“You said yes?” Fred looked confused.

“No!” Rose was slowly losing her grip on sanity. “Look, I don’t have time to waste on boys whom I hardly know when I have six assignments that are due next week and a whole lot of pre-reading to get through!”

As she took off to the girls dormitory in a huff, James whistled in amusement. “Now _that_ , Lilykins, is the kind of attitude you ought to be adopting towards all boys to whom you aren’t related. No offense, Scorpius.”

“Uh, none taken.” He replied, still feeling a little taken aback at the thought of someone asking Rose out.

“Will you be coming over for the Christmas holidays this year?” James continued.

“No.” Scorpius said regretfully. “My parents want me to come home and talk about my future plans.”

“Isn’t it kind of early for that?” Albus asked.

“Not really.” Scorpius shrugged. “We have careers advice with our Heads of Houses this year, remember? It helps you think about which subjects you need to do well in for OWLs to take at NEWT level.”

“Wise words.” James nodded sagely. “You’d better start thinking about it, Severus.”

“You mean you knew what you wanted to do at the age of fifteen?” Albus stared at his brother with a healthy dose of scepticism.

James nodded as if it was the simplest thing in the world. “And thankfully, it doesn’t require me to be great at Astronomy.” He pointed at the completed star chart which Scorpius was holding, among other things.

\--

Christmas was a jolly affair, including mountains of food, more discussions about the upcoming wedding, and re-enacting Lily’s first real Quidditch match. 

At one point, Percy had inquired into how fifth year was progressing for Albus and Rose, and Rose gave him a concise overview of their study plan, which seemed to please him greatly. “An organised schedule is a great beginning.” He complimented them, though Albus wanted to inform him that it really was Rose’s personal plan which he’d been forced to go along with.

“I hope it ends well, Uncle Perce.” He admitted honestly.

“Well, you two are bright and hardworking young kids.” Percy said jovially. “Though I’m sure Rosie here doesn’t need to worry, eh? From what I hear you’re just as smart as your mother.”

“I’m really not.” Rose shook her head, though her smile seemed a little strained now.

Albus noticed this and decided to try and shift the focus from Rose. “I heard you got twelve OWLs yourself.”

Percy beamed. “Quite right, Albus. So did your Uncle Bill, though I wouldn’t advise it since we don’t have any more Time-Turners left for students nowadays. It’s a good thing I had a friend who reminded me to relax once in a while, or I’d have gone completely barmy.”

That was actually good advice from Uncle Percy, Albus thought in wonder, as his (typically) least favourite uncle patted them both on the shoulders and walked off to talk to someone else.

“Hey, you two.” Teddy greeted both of them. “I was wondering if you would like to do me a favour.”

“Sure, what’s up?” Albus smiled, while Rose seemed to snap out of her reverie.

“We’re about to start mailing our wedding invitations out, and I envision my poor owl eventually expiring from exhaustion.” Teddy began. “So if you don’t mind, could you help us pass Scorpius his invitation when you see him at school?”

“He gets his own invitation?” Rose blurted out in surprise.

“Oh, I’ll be sending one to the Malfoy family as a whole, along with a letter from Grandmother.” He referred to Andromeda Black. “But I thought since I know Scorpius personally, he might like to get his own invitation.”

“I’m sure he’ll be delighted.” Albus assured Teddy. “He doesn’t have a lot of family, you know.”

“I know.” Teddy’s hair grew a little darker as he contemplated what a lonely child Scorpius must have been before entering Hogwarts. “Thanks, I’ll pop by tomorrow and pass it to you.”

\--

“I’m not saying that William Shakespeare wasn’t a literary genius of the Muggle world.” Scorpius reiterated. “I’m saying that Romeo and Juliet are ridiculous characters.”

“It’s the most famous love story in Muggle literature!” Rose huffed, waving her copy of _The Complete Works of William Shakespeare_ around. James thought that was rather impressive, since that tome possibly weighed more than _Hogwarts: A History_.

“Look, he begins the story pining after fair Rosalind, and then sees this new girl at a party he crashes and suddenly falls in love with her instead?” Scorpius’ tone dripped with incredulity. 

Albus sighed. “They’ve been arguing for the past ten minutes.” He complained to James. “It’s not even that great a play.”

“What’s it about?” Lily asked curiously as Rose started flipping madly through the book and shoved a particular page in Scorpius’ face.

“Is that the one about the bloke who falls in love with the girl when their families are sworn enemies?” James tried to recall what little he learnt in his short stint at Muggle Studies.

Albus nodded. “It’s supposed to cause a lot of tension, and it’s the motivation for a lot of the subsequent actions of the characters.” He recited from his half-finished essay.

“That’s kind of weird, don’t you think?” Lily shook her head. “It would be like Professor Longbottom dating the daughter of Bellatrix Lestrange.”

The three Potters took a moment to shudder at the horrible thought. “Or, you know, to make it less disturbing,” James shuddered again, “it would be like a Malfoy-Weasley union.” Then the three of them looked at Rose and Scorpius who were now bickering over how suicide most certainly was or was not a stupid ending for a romantic story. 

“The world might implode if that were ever to happen.” Albus said with a straight face, before the three of them started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Rose demanded, pausing in her argument with Scorpius. 

“Lily thinks it’s weird for the children of opposing families to get married.” James quickly blamed his younger sister.

“But they were desperately in love, Lily.” Rose tried to impress upon her younger cousin.

“Oh.” Lily considered this.

“No they weren’t.” Scorpius scoffed. “It was a childish infatuation fuelled by teenage rebellion and fantasies.”

“You know, I think you’re just saying that because you don’t believe in true love.” Rose eyeballed him.

“Now you’re attacking my person instead of my argument.” Scorpius pointed out smugly. “A sure sign of defeat.”

And then they were off again.

\--

“Hey, can I ask you guys something?” Rose enquired as she sat down at the study circle comprised of James, Fred and Louis.

“We don’t have time to tutor you, Rosie.” Fred said distractedly as he copied out another sentence from the Charms textbook in front of him. 

“I don’t need you to tutor me!” Rose looked highly offended. 

“She really doesn’t.” Louis agreed.

“It’s just a couple of quick questions, alright? I’m taking a poll, and you may all have a Chocolate Frog after you answer me.” Rose pulled out a pack of Chocolate Frogs from behind her back.

“Only one Frog among the three of us?” Fred quipped, though he did stop writing. “How miserly of you, Posy.”

“The first question is, do you believe in true love? I’m talking about romantic love, not the love for one’s family or country.” She clarified.

“Sure.” Louis agreed easily and held out his hand for a Chocolate Frog.

“Yeah, but I don’t believe in ‘The One’.” Fred said, complete with air quotes. “I think that certain people are more suited to each other, and they work hard at a relationship.”

“Thanks for elaborating.” Rose nodded approvingly. “And James?”

“I’d have to be blind not to believe in true love.” James shrugged.

“Blind?”

“You know, my parents, your parents, their parents…” James waved a hand vaguely around. “…my grandparents, Teddy and Victoire... the evidence is overwhelming.”

“Okay. Question Two.”

“Wait a minute.” Louis stopped her. “Does this have to do with Jeremy Goldstein asking you out?”

“What?” Rose looked confused. “How do you know about-”

“Because I know the guy,” Louis interrupted her, “and he’s a nice fellow, but definitely not good enough for you.”

“Our offer to have a friendly chat with him still stands.” Fred winked.

“Okay, this has _nothing_ to do with him!” Rose declared in annoyance. “I’m doing research for the purposes of my Muggle Studies essay on Romeo and Juliet. And I would appreciate it if you all never mention that Goldstein incident again.”

“Alright, what’s question two?” James asked, hoping to hurry it along so that he could go back to concentrating on his DADA assignment.

“Since you all believe in true love, how far would you go in order to obtain it?” Rose asked. “For example, Romeo and Juliet met in secret despite their families’ objections, made plans to elope, and then committed suicide when they each thought the other was dead.”

“It would depend on what my family’s objections were.” Louis pointed out. “But I think I’d still go for true love.”

“I wouldn’t commit suicide, though.” Fred shook his head. “That achieves nothing and just makes the people you leave behind even more hurt.”

“What if,” James pointed his quill at Rose, “you love her but you don’t pursue her because bad things might happen if you did?”

“Like what?” Rose looked interested and borrowed his quill to scribble on her parchment.

“Maybe you love her, but you don’t know if she loves you back, and if you confess, you could ruin your friendship forever, or at least make things really awkward.” James theorized.

“Fair enough, but my question is really more about people who know they love each other.” Rose explained.

“Okay. Maybe you’re afraid that keeping her by your side could ultimately prove to be dangerous for her.” James suggested. “Dad broke up with Mum because he was afraid that Voldemort would hurt her by association. In fact, all Aurors’ families need higher protection.”

“Are you saying that Teddy shouldn’t marry Tori just because he’s an Auror?” Louis looked horrified.

“Well, no, but I’m saying I would understand if he chose not to put her in danger.” James tried to explain.

“You sound like you’ve given this a lot of thought.” Fred peered at James suspiciously. “Is there something you’re not telling us?”

“I give up. End of discussion.” James sighed. “Hand over the Frog.”

\--

After yawning for the tenth time, Scorpius decided to call it a night and leave the library. He was seriously considering whether he should drop Divination or Ancient Runes, since he was starting to have doubts about being able to do well in all eleven subjects he’d undertaken. It was a depressing thought, but perhaps it was better to do well in ten subjects than do averagely in eleven.

As he gathered up his books, he noticed a familiar head of red hair at one of the study desks. Sure enough, it was Rose, but instead of furiously scribbling away, Scorpius realised that she’d fallen asleep on her books. 

“Hey.” He shook her shoulder gently. “Wake up. It’s almost time for curfew.”

Rose suddenly jerked awake, sending a book tumbling to the floor. “What? Where am I?”

“You’re in the library.” Scorpius couldn’t say he was too surprised at her current state. Rose had clearly been getting more and more stressed throughout the year, and it seemed only a matter of time before she crashed and burned. “We need to leave soon – it’s already half-past nine.”

“What?” Rose looked aghast. “It can’t be! I haven’t finished all my revision for tonight, and it’ll totally mess up my schedule!” She looked around the table wildly. “Where’s my Herbology book?”

Scorpius sighed and bent down to retrieve the book from the floor. “Look, you’re tired and it’s late. Just go and get a good night’s rest and try and catch up on your revision tomorrow.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” She suddenly growled at him. “Then you’d finally get the chance to get ahead of me.”

Scorpius’ expression hardened. It had been a long day of classes and studying and he wasn’t in a mood to placate her. “Stay here if that makes you happy, then. Pardon me for bothering to care about your well-being.” He was about to leave when he couldn’t help but add, “As hard as it may be for you to believe, not everything is about our little rivalry, Weasley.”

At the sound of her surname, something inside Rose snapped and her irritation at him died down immediately. “Merlin, I’m going to fail everything.”

Scorpius had had every intention of leaving her there, but hearing that pitiful statement from her in such a lost tone forced him to face her again. “What are you talking about?”

“Do you know what my mother’s fifth year at Hogwarts was like?” Rose asked him rhetorically. “She carried out all her prefect duties, stayed at the top of her year in nine subjects, organised secret DADA classes with Dad and Uncle Harry, fought at the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, and managed to score eight Outstandings and one Exceeds Expectations for her OWLs.”

“No one is asking you to be your mother.” Scorpius shook his head tiredly.

“No, but everyone expects it!” She cried hysterically. “My family keeps talking about how I inherited her brains, all the professors say I’m just like her, and...I just can’t live up to their expectations!”

“Then don’t!” He said exasperatedly. “Who cares what other people expect you to be?”

“It’s not that simple!”

“Weren’t you the one who told me to get over myself and show people that I’m not my father?” Scorpius reminded her harshly. “Take your own advice, Rose. Don’t blame people for comparing you to your mother – do something about it.”

“It’s easier to not live down to your parent’s reputation than trying to match up to it!” She bit out, though she immediately regretted the low blow she’d dealt to him.

He froze after the words left her mouth, and she could see his throat work as he swallowed uncomfortably. “Big words from a little girl who only knows how to be a pale copy of her mother.” He taunted. “I don’t know how I ever thought we were rivals.”

He felt a slight pang of guilt when he saw how stricken she looked, but he was too infuriated to care and left the library.

\--

“Did you and Rose have a fight?” Albus asked in concern as he lingered back a little to talk to Scorpius without Rose noticing. It wasn’t too hard, as she was currently occupied with trying to feed a thestral she couldn’t actually see.

“How did you guess?” Scorpius replied dryly.

“Well, my first clue was when she came out from the girls’ dorm in the morning with her eyes all swollen.” Albus frowned. “And the second was when you two didn’t argue after Muggle Studies like you normally do.”

Scorpius ran a hand through his hair in an unusual display of agitation. “You know she’s been stressed about OWLs lately, right?”

“Yeah.” Albus nodded worriedly. “She said she was coping with it.”

“That girl wouldn’t admit to needing help even if you tortured her.” Scorpius scoffed, and tried to think about how to phrase the problem. “Rose is feeling a lot of pressure because she thinks she has to live up to her mother’s reputation.”

Albus blinked as he digested this new piece of information that really wasn’t surprising now that Scorpius had mentioned it. “She told you all this?” He asked, feeling slightly hurt that Rose had seen fit to confide in her rival rather than her favourite cousin.

“It was more like she had a mental breakdown and I just happened to be there.” Scorpius winced at the memory. “Then I basically told her to get over it and left her in the library.”

“You left her there to mope alone?” Albus looked rather upset at him now. If it had been up to him, he’d have stayed there and tried to comfort her at least.

Scorpius scowled at him. “She insinuated that it’s easier to be better than Draco Malfoy than it is to disappoint people by not being Hermione Granger.”

Now Albus winced. Rose was usually so level-headed, and yet when she was mad, she could be unnecessarily cruel with her words. “I’m sorry she said that.”

“You know what? I don’t even think that’s why I was angry in the first place.” Scorpius admitted, his gaze flitting over to where Rose was quietly taking notes from Hagrid. “I… I’ve never seen her so defeated and _pathetic_ before. I thought she was stronger than that, and…”

“She disappointed you.” Albus concluded pensively. “What am I going to do about the two of you?”

Scorpius smiled wryly. “Poor Albus the peacemaker.”

“That’s what they’ll write on my grave.” Albus told him seriously.


	6. 5th Year - Part B

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which James gives Rose some advice, a wedding takes place, and family Quidditch is played!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the late update - was away and had no laptop access! Hope this chapter doesn't disappoint!

“James, do you have a moment to talk?” Rose approached him hesitantly.

The oldest Potter was about to reply flippantly when he saw the slightly anxious expression on her face. He sighed and put down his quill, patting the space on the couch next to him. “Sure.”

“Why did you decide that you’re going to be an Auror?” She asked bluntly.

His eyes widened in surprise. “How did you know?”

“I bribed Professor Longbottom into telling me.” Rose deadpanned, and James almost believed her. “I heard you talking to Teddy about being an Auror, observed what subjects you’re taking, and made an intelligent guess.”

James had always known that his younger cousin was smart, but he didn’t realise how intuitive she could be. “What are you really asking, Rosie?” He frowned.

Rose contemplated whether to risk offending him. “Please don’t get mad at me for saying this…”

“It’s never good when someone begins a sentence like that.” He commented offhandedly.

“…do you want to become an Auror just because you want to, or does it have to do with Uncle Harry and Teddy being Aurors already?”

Instead of straightforwardly answering her question, James was infuriatingly calm when he returned it by asking, “Why do you want to know if they influenced my decision?”

It seemed like James wasn’t going to let her get her answers without her being honest in return. “Because all this while I feel like I’ve just been trying to meet people’s expectations by being just like my mum was at this age, and it’s driving me crazy.” Rose admitted in frustration. “And we have careers advice coming up soon, and OWLs, and I just… I don’t know what to think or do anymore.”

James’ lips were parted slightly in shock, because he’d never have guessed that Rose had been bottling all of this in for so long. And in he felt slightly guilty on his part – hadn’t he at some point or another made some quip about her being like her mum? If anyone knew what it was like to live in the shadow of a ridiculously famous person by being their firstborn, it should be him.

“I want to be an Auror because I think it’s a worthy way to spend my life.” James told her. “But I don’t think I can say with certainty that it has nothing to do with so many people I look up to having done the same job.”

“Doesn’t that bother you?” Rose asked miserably. “Shouldn’t it be something you want, just because you’re… _you_?”

“But who am I, really?” James replied, almost philosophically. “I can’t help being the son of my father, or the grandson of my grandfather, or the not-really-blood-related-younger-brother of my… well, you get the picture.” His weak joke made Rose smile a little in spite of her troubled state. 

“Look, we’re all products of our upbringing. Teddy’s an Auror like his mother was. Victoire joined the Ministry to work on werewolf rights because of Uncle Bill and Teddy’s dad. Emily Wood wants to play professional Quidditch like her dad. Fred wants to export the Wheezes internationally. Little Francesca Longbottom likes Herbology.”

“So I’m my mother’s daughter, and there’s nothing I can do about it?” Rose folded her arms, not too happy with where James was going with this.

James sighed. “Want to know a secret?”

Rose shrugged. “Why not?”

“When I first came to Hogwarts, I was determined not to be seen as Harry Potter’s son, so I pulled all the pranks I could get away with. After all, I thought, what could be more different from the saviour of the school several times over than a troublemaker?” James grinned. “But then the older professors started making comments that I was just like my namesake and the Marauders. So it kind of backfired.”

“Well, clearly you stopped being a prankster.” Rose said ironically.

“I continued because I found it fun. I liked the thrill and the humour.” James explained. “I guess what I’m saying is, it’s not wrong to want to be like Aunt Hermione, but doing it _only_ because other people expect it of you probably isn’t the best reason. Do it because you think it’s the right thing to do with your life.”

Rose considered this before nodding slowly.

“But don’t go around leaving random bits of clothing for house-elves to pick up.” James warned her. “I need them in the kitchens to keep supplying me with food.”

\--

Rose tried to make some sort of eye contact with Scorpius at dinner but to no avail. She cursed the fact that the Slytherin table was so far from the Gryffindor table.

Albus looked at her oddly. “What are you looking at?”

“I’m trying to get your stupid best friend to see that I need to talk to him.” Rose muttered. 

“You’re making up with him?” Albus asked hopefully, to which she nodded. “Finally!”

“Stupid prat won’t look in this direction.” Rose grumbled.

Albus went back to eating his dinner. He knew that Scorpius had mostly forgotten (and thus forgiven) Rose for what she’d said, but things had still been awkward between them. As he looked around the table for someone else to talk to, he noticed that James and Fred were rather conspicuous in their absence. It left him with a sense of foreboding as he remembered the last time they’d been absent in order to pull off a prank.

Before he could finish the thought, the decorative Easter eggs which had been charmed to float around the ceiling suddenly burst with a loud bang. Several students shrieked or jumped in their seats as cloud of what looked like colourful dust started raining down. 

With reflexes borne out of Quidditch practice and just generally being related to James and Fred, Albus quickly snatched an empty plate to shield his head from the dust. Rose, however, had been so engrossed in trying to catch Scorpius’ gaze that she failed to do the same, and the dust landed on her.

Rose coughed automatically and drew out her wand to emit a puff of air to clear the dust around her. Albus looked puzzled as he saw that there was nothing different about her post-dusting. He’d expected her perhaps to start dancing uncontrollably or grow something out of her head, among other things. “Nothing happened.” Albus frowned.

“Um, that’s not quite accurate.” Rose pointed to the other students who looked similarly surprised by the lack of explosive reactions. Albus straightened up to look around, and let out a laugh when he realised that everyone who’d been dusted was now sporting a head of red hair, including a disgruntled Professor Longbottom.

Even those like him who’d been fast enough to cover their heads had inevitably gotten a bit of dust on the tips of their hair, which then turned red. The oddest thing was that they were all sporting various shades of red hair, ranging from copper to auburn. The students were now in a slight state of chaos, some girls frantically trying to charm their hair back, to no effect.

Rose – whose own bright hair remained unaffected – seized the chance to trail after Scorpius, who was currently leaving the dining hall with hair the same shade as Lily’s natural strawberry blonde. “Scorpius!” She called after him as she ran out of the dining hall after him.

He turned around, and the sight of his surprised face framed by that hair nearly made her burst out in giggles.

“You look like one of us now.” Rose couldn’t help but comment.

Scorpius smiled wryly. “I think that was the point of their little prank.”

“It’s certainly tamer than what they used to do.” Rose agreed, before noticing the odd look on Scorpius’ face. “I wanted to apologise for what I said about your father’s reputation.” She quickly said. “I only said it because I was upset and was trying to hurt you because you weren’t indulging me in my moping-”

“Rose, it’s okay.” He interrupted her. “I wasn’t in the best frame of mind, and I shouldn’t have been so hard on you that night.”

“But you were just trying to care for my well-being and getting me to see sense about why I was stressing myself out.” Rose barrelled on. “And I just wanted to let you know that I’ve sorted it all out.”

“That’s good.”

Rose frowned. “Don’t you want to hear my brilliant conclusion?”

Scorpius shrugged. “You’re going to tell me whether I want to hear it or not.”

Rose gaped at him for a moment before breaking into a wide grin. “Damn right I am, _Ginger_.”

A hand flew up involuntarily to touch his red hair, and he scowled. “At least I don’t look like this all the time, _Red_.”

“Everyone knows redheads have more fun than blondes.”

\--

“Wow, I feel like I’m back at the Burrow at Christmas.” Fred commented to James as the red-headed students entered the common room after the chaos at dinner.

“Come on, Fred.” One of the fourth-year boys grinned. “Change it back.”

Fred gasped in mock indignation. “Are you saying that I had something to do with this?”

James folded his arms sternly. “We were studying up here the whole time, weren’t we, Fred?”

“Indeed.” Fred nodded sincerely.

“So it was someone else who decided to prank the entire dining hall into resembling your extended family?” Another girl asked, her now red hair looking rather at odds with her Asian colouring.

“To be fair, we’re not all red-haired, you know.” James indicated himself and Fred. “Except Lily, Rose, Hugo…”

“Dominique, Molly, Lucy…” Fred continued.

“Grandpa and Grandma Weasley, my mum, your dad…” James ticked off his fingers.

“And Uncles Bill, Charlie, Percy and Ron.” Albus finished dryly as he entered the common room as well.

“Exactly.” James pointed at his younger brother proudly. “Just those few.”

“It was a neat prank.” Hugo, who had come up with Lily to hang out with his family for a bit, complimented them. “Most of them are still figuring out how to undo the spell.”

“It looks like you tried to recruit a red-headed army to join you in your plans for Weasley world domination.” Emily stated as she observed the odd sight in their common room.

“If we were, you’d be the first we’d ask, Emma.” Fred wiggled his eyebrows cheekily. “After all, you’ve naturally got the hair already.” 

“It’s nice to know that’s your only requirement for a soldier. But just in case this useless mop isn’t enough,” She ruffled her auburn ponytail ruefully, “I did get an E on my Defence OWL.”

“That does sound useful.” Fred pretended to consider this point. “You’re hired.”

“Come on, Emily, you’ve got lovely hair.” Lily laughed as the seventh-year girl plopped down on the sofa next to her. Lily pulled Emily’s hair-tie off with swiftness reminiscent of Albus’ Snitch-catching. “Look, it’s all thick and smooth and shiny. Isn’t it, James?” She gave her older brother a sly look.

James blinked and took a few seconds to come up with a reply. “I suppose I must defer to my younger sister’s expertise.”

“Potter men have a history of marrying redheads.” Lily informed Emily cheerfully. “At least, our dad and granddad did.”

“Did you know that Muggle researchers have conducted experiments on the inheritance of traits, including hair colour?” Hugo brought up suddenly. “And they say that red hair is the rarest hair colour because the gene that codes for it is recessive.”

“What’s a gene?” Louis asked, having joined in the group in the hopes of getting his hair back to its usual blond.

Hugo started explaining what Muggles did in the field of genetics with the enthusiasm of a professor while the rest tried to follow. Albus had tuned his cousin out until he heard his name being mentioned.

“So James and Albus have dark hair like Uncle Harry because the gene that confers dark hair is dominant, even though Aunt Ginny will definitely have given them the red hair gene.” He gestured to the two Potter boys. “And Lily has red hair because she’s gotten the red hair gene from both parents.”

“So what you’re saying is, if James marries a redhead, his kids could either have dark hair or red hair, but if he marries someone with, say, brown hair, they’ll all have dark hair?” Lily asked.

“That depends on whether she has a recessive red hair gene as well. And then it’s like a game of chance.” Hugo pulled out a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill and began drawing a diagram. “Let’s say James marries,” Hugo looked around for a true redhead they weren’t related to, “Emily, and they have four kids…”

“Woah, woah.” James held up a hand. “ _Four kids_?”

“Don’t you want to have kids some day?” Emily tilted her head to the side and asked.

“Well…yeah, maybe, but-” James spluttered, trying not to imagine what his and Emily’s kids would look like.

“…So the chance of a redheaded child is half.” Hugo explained. “Whereas if James marries someone like,” He now looked around for a brunette, “Carrie Finnegan, and they-”

“Carrie Finnegan?” Lily scoffed. “She’s in our year, Hugo.”

Hugo blinked, not really understanding what Lily was getting at. “Yes, she is. And she naturally has brown hair, for the purposes of my illustration.”

“James wouldn’t marry someone like _Carrie_.” Lily huffed. “He’s going to marry someone who’s closer to his age, and doesn’t scream at the sight of a Quaffle being thrown to her. And she’ll be a redhead.”

James felt a little queasy at the thought. “Can we please stop talking about my hypothetical marriage and the number of imaginary children I’m apparently going to have?”

“That’s what you get for turning the entire dining hall into gingers.” Louis retorted. “Now, give me back my blond hair.”

\--

“How was the exam?” Albus asked as Rose and Scorpius returned to the library where they had practically camped at for the period leading up to their OWLs, and were now using to do some final studying for subsequent exams.

“It wasn’t as bad as the Astronomy one.” Scorpius quipped, though his face showed his relief at having finished it.

“It was pretty hard, though.” Rose admitted. “I think I might have mixed up some of the calculations for the questions near the end.”

It was perhaps a testament to how Rose had eased up on living up to others’ expectations that she didn’t look absolutely stressed out by her mistakes, unlike how she’d been for the past few years. It made Albus feel a lot more at ease. “Oh well, I guess it’s not too bad. You won’t really need to study Arithmancy at NEWT level for what you want to do after school, right?”

“I suppose…” Rose said doubtfully. “Although you never really know when it comes to certain less subject-specific jobs. It’s not like I’m applying to work with dragons like Uncle Charlie which has a clear cut requirement.”

Scorpius paused in the middle of flipping through his Divination textbook. It suddenly occurred to him that he had no idea what Rose wanted to do for a career. “How do you know she won’t need Arithmancy at NEWT level?” He asked Albus.

“I dunno.” Albus looked a little uncertain, since he himself didn’t take the subject. “I just thought that the bulk of Ministry jobs aren’t _too_ concerned with specific subjects, as long as you get a minimum number of NEWTs.”

“You want to work at the Ministry?” Scorpius asked Rose.

“Didn’t she tell you?” Albus was a little confused by Scorpius’ apparent confusion, and glanced back at Rose.

“No, she didn’t.” Scorpius frowned further, feeling unreasonably cross at this new realisation.

“So I forgot to tell you. Why are you so upset?” Rose leaned back, a little put off by his expression.

The answer came immediately, without him needing to think. “Because we’re friends! And this is the kind of thing friends tell each other.”

“Well,” Rose spluttered, “ _you_ didn’t tell me what career you’re aiming for either. Ha! And since when were we friends, anyway?”

“I…” Scorpius had no idea when they’d stopped being just rivals who needed Albus to constantly mediate between them. Somewhere along the way, it seemed that he and Rose Weasley had indeed become friends.

“You two are the stupidest people I’ve ever met.” Albus declared, and was met with twin gazes of indignation. “Rose wants to work in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Scorpius wants to be a Healer. And in case anyone’s interested, Albus still doesn’t know what he wants to do.” He pointed to himself, expecting his two best friends to be a little sympathetic.

“The Department of International Magical Cooperation?” Scorpius echoed to Rose, ignoring Albus’ last remark about himself.

Albus sighed. His best friends were tossers.

\--

“I can’t believe it took me so long to ask Ellie out.” Fred admitted as the Hogwarts Express left the Hogsmeade station. Eleanor Haywood was a quietly pretty Hufflepuff year-mate of theirs who’d liked Fred ever since he pulled a prank on her in fifth year, but never imagined that a popular boy like Fred Weasley would like her. 

Funnily enough, Fred had harboured the impression that she held some sort of grudge against him for his pranks. It had taken Fred until after NEWTs were over to realise that he might never see her again after they graduated from Hogwarts, at which point he’d plucked up the courage to ask her out.

“Speaking of the girl who’s too good for you, where is she?” James asked.

“She said she wanted to spend her last train ride with her Hufflepuff year-mates.” Fred explained.

“It’s hard to believe that this is the last time we’ll ever be on this train.” Emily mused as she stared out of the window at the scenery flashing by. “It seems like just yesterday we were first years boarding the train at King’s Cross.”

“Remember how small we were then?” Karen, the other Gryffindor girl in their compartment grinned. “And then being told to get into those boats while everybody else went in the carriages.”

“I think I fell into the Lake.” Fred recalled.

“That’s because I pushed you.” James confessed, earning himself a punch from his cousin. “In my defence, you were rocking the boat! You were a danger to the rest of us, right, Matt?” He nudged another Gryffindor boy next to him, who nodded solemnly before cracking up.

“I need not take this abuse.” Fred declared and stood up. “I’m going to find someone who actually cares enough about me.”

“That might be difficult.” James shook his head knowingly as Fred left their compartment in search of Eleanor. “Wait, you too?” He frowned as Matt and Karen got up as well.

“It’s the last train ride, mate. And I said I’d sit with Chase and the others.” Matt said, referring to the other Gryffindors in their year.

“We can’t all fit into one compartment.” Karen added and followed Matt out of the door. “I’m just going to chat with them for a while, and I’ll be back.”

“Go ahead.” Emily waved her friend off, and looked back to realise that it was just her and James left in the compartment. 

“So, ‘mily, what are your plans?” James asked amiably. “Going for Quidditch team tryouts?”

“Yeah, for a few teams.” Emily nodded, fingering her broom lovingly. “I’m really lucky that those scouts turned up for our last game of the year.”

“Luck’s got nothing to do with it.” He scoffed. “They saw you play brilliantly and knew that they’d be idiots not to invite you for tryouts.”

“Oh.” She blinked at the rare compliment. “Thanks.”

“My mum saw you play when she came for one of our games.” He mentioned casually. “She said you’re welcome to come and play in our annual Weasley summer tournament.”

“Really?” Her face lit up for a second before falling. “But if it’s just a family thing, I don’t want to intrude…”

James waved a hand dismissively. “Nonsense. If Mum says you’re invited, then you’re invited. We sometimes have non-relatives playing, like Scorpius, or my dad’s old teammates. Plus, my team needs a Keeper, since Teddy’s going to be busy with the wedding. And Scorpius really is better at Beating than-”

“ _Your_ team?” Emily interrupted.

James raised a brow. “Well, of course you’re joining Team James. Weren’t you listening? I need you to be my Keeper.” 

She couldn’t help but melt a little on the inside at that statement.

“Seriously, Wood, how you hope to get into Puddlemere United with that empty head of yours is beyond me.”

“Shut up, Potter.”

\--

The wedding of Edward Remus Lupin and Victoire Weasley was anticipated to be an impressive event, since Victoire was the first grandchild on either side of her family to be married, and both sets of grandparents were determined to make it perfect.

Rose was glad she wasn’t being given all sorts of tasks to carry out like Dominique and Louis were, since she (along with Albus) were still underage and couldn’t be as useful as James and Fred, who were also made to do things like put up decorations and line up chairs.

Instead, she welcomed the guests who were slowly trickling in, some in dress robes and others in Muggle formal wear. Rose herself had opted for Muggle clothing since she didn’t get to wear it often, and Victoire had picked out a nice dress for her even though she wasn’t part of the bridal party. Then she heard the sound of more people Apparating in and turned around to greet them. “Good afternoon-”

She stopped as she took in the sight of a wizard who looked uncannily like a middle-aged Scorpius. A blonde witch in elegant dress robes was standing next to him, and Rose belatedly realised that these were Scorpius’ parents, whom she’d only seen a couple of times from afar at King’s Cross station. “Welcome, Mr and Mrs Malfoy.” She regained her composure.

“You must be Rose Weasley. Pleased to meet you.” Mr Malfoy commented, and Rose nodded in slight surprise. It wasn’t as if she particularly resembled either of her parents.

“Scorpius has told us so much about you.” Mrs Malfoy explained. “Though I must say, he didn’t mention what a pretty young lady you are.”

Rose found herself blushing. “Thank you.” And then, because she didn’t really know how to respond to that, she quickly ushered them in and directed the couple to their seats. She returned to the entrance and saw Scorpius chatting to Albus. “Hey.”

Scorpius paused and turned with a ready smile on his face, which faded into an open-mouthed surprise as he took in her appearance. “Hey, Rose. You look nice.”

Rose found her cheeks growing warm for the second time in five minutes. “Thanks, so do you.”

Albus observed his two best friends smiling at each other and felt like he was missing something that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. But then some French guests arrived and his attention was taken up again, and so he put it at the back of his mind for now.

\--

“Rose, when you get married, can I be your maid of honour?” Lily asked, as they watched Dominique being led by Teddy’s best man to join the newly wedded couple on the dance floor.

Rose nearly choked on her drink. “What?”

“I’m your closest girl cousin.” Lily put forth her defence. “I’m good at organising things. And I promise to wear whatever you pick out for me, as long as it doesn’t clash with red hair.”

“Isn’t it a little premature to be discussing such things?” Rose retorted weakly.

“Not really. I’m just trying to get a promise out of you first.” Lily shrugged, and turned to Scorpius, who looked like he was trying not to laugh. “Scorpius, who would your best man be?”

“Albus.” Scorpius replied without hesitation.

Albus turned to his best friend with wide eyes. “Really?”

“Of course.” Scorpius ran a hand through his hair, a little embarrassed by the way Albus was looking at him. “You’re my best friend, mate. Like the brother I never had.”

“Thanks, man.” Albus clasped his friend’s hand firmly. “Best friends.”

“Oh, get a room, you two.” James rolled his eyes and went off to find himself a drink.

“What’s up with him?” Rose looked puzzled.

“He’s probably jealous because he wants to be Albus’ best man.” Lily joked.

“Or maybe he’s just annoyed that Fred’s spent the whole wedding with Eleanor instead of him.” Albus suggested, indicating the couple who was just stepping onto the dance floor and joining the other dancing couples.

“They look so…” Rose murmured, unable to find a word to describe the sight that was Teddy gazing into Victoire’s face as they moved slowly to the music, as if they were the only two people in the world at that moment.

Scorpius glanced at her and unconsciously smiled at the entranced expression on her face. “Yeah.”

\--

“I thought you told me that you normally play kids versus adults, James.” Emily commented as she almost wistfully observed this family that was apparently big enough to field two full teams to play against each other.

“We do.” James nodded.

“It’s my fault.” Harry smiled disarmingly. “I’ve always wanted to captain Team Potter.”

“And now that we’ve recruited you and Scorpius, we can fulfil my husband’s silly fantasy.” Ginny grinned. Emily felt a little giddy and wasn’t sure which was more exciting – playing Quidditch on the same team as the saviour of the wizarding world or a Holyhead Harpy.

“I hope you don’t mind being an honorary Potter for one day.” Harry looked at her.

Emily glanced involuntarily at James who was busy tying his shoes before nodding, which didn’t go unnoticed by Ginny. “But, who’s going to play Seeker, sir?”

“Albus is.” Harry clapped his younger son on the shoulder.

It was on the tip of Emily’s tongue to say that the youngest Seeker in a century at Hogwarts would surely be a better choice, but she stopped herself from saying it. “Then you’ll be a Beater, sir?”

“Yup. Your father once told me that I wasn’t bad with a bat.” Harry grinned. “Today’s the day we see whether his assessment was right.”

“Knowing Dad, I’m sure he was spot on.” Emily said firmly.

“I still think you should be Seeker, Dad.” Albus said nervously. “I’m never going to catch the Snitch before Uncle Charlie does.”

“Not with _that_ attitude you’re not.” Lily put a hand on her hip and looked scarily like her mother for one moment.

“I have faith in you, son.” Harry encouraged Albus. “And remember, it’s just a game.”

“With our family pride on the line.” James added.

“I’m not a Potter, if that relieves the pressure on you.” Scorpius tried to sound reassuring.

“You’re a Potter for today.” James scowled at him, and Scorpius snorted in disbelief, but picked up his bat anyway. James turned to Emily. “And so are you.”

“Is that a proposal?” Lily joked, and had the pleasure of seeing both James and Emily flush.

“Are we here to chitchat or are we here to play some Quidditch?” Angelina Weasley shouted across the makeshift pitch. 

“She reminds me of my dad.” Emily remarked. 

Harry shivered comically. “You have no idea.” 

And with that, the two teams flew into the air and prepared themselves to begin the game. Bill released the Snitch (a used one from previous games, so flesh memories would be impossible, not that anyone thought it would be necessary), as well as two balls made from rock and Charmed to act like Bludgers. Then he tossed the Quaffle in the air and blew his whistle to start the game.

Rose kept her eyes trained on the Quaffle, being responsible for announcing the scores. She wasn’t quite sure who to cheer for. On one hand, her father and brother were on Team Weasley, and she was of course a Weasley herself. On the other hand, Albus and Scorpius were on Team Potter, and she was definitely closer to them than most of the others.

She spent the rest of the game cheering for just about everybody, despite some dark looks sent from her father, and the game finally ended when Albus managed to spot the Snitch and inched out Charlie to grab it.

“Good game.” Charlie congratulated Albus, who looked like he couldn’t believe he’d won. “I must be getting rusty in my old age.”

“Are you saying you could have beaten him if you were still seventeen?” Bill asked slyly.

“Sure.” Charlie agreed confidently, amidst a background of happily rejoicing Potters. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Rose noticed James and Emily apparently debating over something, and heard the tail-end of the conversation as they all flew back down. “…it’s nothing-”

“What are you talking about, it was a hard blow-”

“I’m fine!” Emily insisted, though even Rose could tell that she was favouring her left wrist. “I’ve gotten way worse injuries before.”

“Yeah, but what about your tryouts next week-”

Ginny stopped their bickering by taking hold of Emily’s left hand, causing the girl to flinch. “I’ll take a look at it if you don’t mind, my dear.” Her tone brooked no further argument.

“Okay.” Emily agreed meekly and let herself be led into the house while James harrumphed and muttered something about stubborn idiots. 

“I’ve had my share of injuries before.” Ginny informed Emily cheerfully as she indicated for Emily to sit down on the sofa and summoned a medical kit from somewhere. “It’s probably just a bone bruise.”

“I know.” Emily grumbled slightly, still mindful of being polite to her friend’s mother. “Quidditch players get hurt all the time. I don’t see why he was making such a big deal out of nothing.”

“Does he normally do so?” Ginny asked casually as she took out some bone-bruise-removal cream from a jar and began to apply it.

Emily considered the question. “Well, he was pretty torn up when Albus got that Bludger to his head. And Lily got a slight wrist sprain during one practice, and he got a little upset then.”

“James can be rather protective of the people he cares about.” Ginny commented, wiping off the excess cream and putting the lid back on the jar.

“Yes, well, that’s family, isn’t it?” Emily replied, experimentally moving her hand as the pain receded. Then the implied meaning of Ginny’s words sank in and she quickly looked up at the older woman. “Oh, Mrs Potter, he doesn’t…that is to say…he was just concerned because- because I have tryouts for some league teams next week, and he probably just doesn’t want to feel responsible if I mess up because of this.”

“Really?” Ginny raised a brow.

“Well, yes.” Emily latched on to the only logical explanation. She couldn’t allow herself to even consider what Ginny was hinting at, because she knew that it would just hurt more. “He knows how much playing Quidditch professionally means to me. Everyone does, in fact.”

“I see.” Ginny saw how agitated the poor girl was getting and smiled. “I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable, my dear. It’s just that you’re the first girl James has ever brought home, and as his mum, I’m entitled to be a little nosey.”

Emily chuckled. “He didn’t ‘bring me home’, he just said that you invited me to come over and play Quidditch.”

“Right, of course.” Ginny agreed, just as the rest of them started trooping in.

“How’s your wrist?” James demanded.

“I told you, it’s fine.” Emily gritted her teeth. Merlin, this boy was annoying.

“Ah, Emily, there you are.” Harry smiled. “We’re going to celebrate this Potter victory over dinner and I insist that you stay for it.”

“Oh, but-”

“Potter victory?” Ron Weasley echoed as he came in. “We demand a rematch!”

“That’s what he says after every Cannons game.” Ginny rolled her eyes as Emily choked down a laugh.

“How about we discuss this over my victory dinner?” Harry suggested pleasantly.

“What was that, Potter?” George asked. “ _Your_ victory dinner?”

“You’re welcome to join us.” Harry offered hospitably and George shrugged and accepted.

“Just as well, Angie’s cooking isn’t that great- OW!” He yelped as his wife punched him.

Emily stared at the bickering between the two teams, while Rose sighed and sat down next to her. “Welcome to the family.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes:  
> 1\. I realise this story is meant to focus on Rose/Scorpius and Albus, so I'm sorry if anyone found the James/Emily tangent rather boring. The rest of the story will still be at Hogwarts and focus on the trio. If anyone has any ideas about how to write a side-story about James/Emily, please do share them, because I'm currently facing writer's block regarding them.
> 
> 2\. I might have oversimplified the genetics explanation given by Hugo, and rambled on for too long in that scene. I just like the idea of redheaded babies.
> 
> 3\. All kudos and comments are greatly appreciated! I also welcome constructive criticism.


	7. 6th Year - Part A

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Scorpius gets a girlfriend, there is a squabble over Transfiguration, and a bit of Quidditch is played.

“Eleven OWLs?” Albus goggled as he stared at Rose’s transcript. “I know I shouldn’t be surprised, and yet I am! You’re brilliant, Rose!”

“Thanks.” Rose grinned happily. “It’s not like I got Outstandings on all of them, but at least I passed!”

“’At least I passed’, she says.” Albus mimicked her. “You got one A, two E’s and O’s for all the rest- _how on earth_ did you get an O for History of Magic?”

“I like history.” Rose shrugged and continued scanning Albus’ transcript. “It looks like you passed everything you actually cared about.” She looked up. “You didn’t really want to do Astronomy or History of Magic at NEWT level anyway, did you?”

“Nope.” Albus said cheerfully. “Which subjects are you going to take this year?”

“Mum advised me to take as many as I think I can handle, and then gauge whether the workload is too much. That’s also what Uncle Neville said.” Rose pondered. “Obviously I don’t qualify for NEWT-level Astronomy-”

He snorted at that because he doubted many of their year-mates would be continuing that subject.

“-and I think I don’t want to do Care of Magical Creatures nor Arithmancy anymore. I did those mostly to show that I could do it all as well as Mum could, not really because I liked them.” Rose admitted quietly. Albus patted her on the shoulder. “And I’m hoping I won’t really need NEWT-level Ancient Runes for what I want to do in the future. So I’ll take the remaining seven. You?”

“Well, I still don’t really know what I want to do.” Albus sighed. 

“I think you could be Minister of Magic.” Rose offered.

“Very funny.” He shook his head.

“Why not?” She countered. “You’re bright, hardworking, likable, and you’ve got this ability to sort out conflicts and make people trust you.”

Albus blinked in surprise, not realising that she was at least partially serious. “That sounds more like someone who works in Muggle Relations, or something like that.”

“You could aim for that, I guess, but I thought you weren’t that keen on Muggle Studies.” Rose said doubtfully. “Or perhaps something to do with Magical Law Enforcement. Keep your options open.”

“That’s what Scorpius says.” He noted.

“Do you know how he did on the OWLs?” Rose immediately asked.

“Hey, what happened to…not being all crazy about living up to your parents’ expectations?” Albus retorted in mock indignation.

“My rivalry with him has nothing to do with being like Mum.” She folded her arms crossly.

“No, but wasn’t your dad the one who told you to beat him in everything?” He countered.

Rose stared at him for a moment before laughing. “Al, my dad’s order was relevant for all of… _one month_ , and from then on it was just between me and Scorpius.”

“So you’re telling me that your constant need to beat Scorpius has nothing to do with how proud Uncle Ron feels when you do?” Albus persisted.

“Look, I know Dad has this thing about beating anyone from the Malfoy family,” she winced slightly at the thought of it, because family feuding always made her feel uncomfortable, “but Scorpius is _my_ rival. He…” She hesitated for a bit, wondering if it was okay to tell Albus this. “…he makes me want to do better, to achieve more. And he makes me believe that I can.”

Albus’ eyes were wide as saucers by now. “Wow.”

“Don’t tell him I said that, okay?” Rose quickly demanded. “His ego doesn’t need any further inflating.”

“Alright, alright.” He agreed, holding up both hands in surrender. “How about we write to him and ask him how he scored?”

Rose grinned. “Now you’re talking.”

\--

“It’s kind of weird going to school without James.” Albus commented as the train began its journey. “Although I can’t say I’ll miss his torturous Quidditch training practices.”

“I made him promise to write to us at least once a month.” Lily informed him.

“I can’t believe he got into the Auror training program.” Scorpius marvelled. When he saw Lily frowning at him he quickly explained, “It’s just that it’s so difficult to get in nowadays, especially since we’re in a time of peace.”

“I suppose there’ll always be dark wizards to catch, not just the extreme ones who torture Muggles.” Albus said.

Rose could practically hear Scorpius telling himself not to think of his family and decided to change the subject. “By the way, which subjects are you taking, other than the ones you need to qualify for Healing?”

“Care of Magical Creatures.” He replied, and Rose looked a little surprised that he wasn’t taking more subjects than that. “I figured if I already know what subjects I need, then I might as well just cut down and focus on them.”

“And this way, you get more free periods.” Albus winked at Hugo and Lily, who looked blissfully happy at the thought.

\--

“Hey Rose, mind if I ask you something?”

Rose looked up from her book to see her fellow dorm-mate, a pretty girl by the name of Jenna Freeman, looking somewhat nervous. “Sure, what’s up?”

“Are you and Scorpius Malfoy going out?”

“Jenna!” Her best friend, Catherine Pennyworth hissed at her from her bed.

Rose simply blinked at the question that seemingly came out of nowhere. “What?” She replied intelligently. Jenna repeated her question a little more confidently this time, and the other girls in their dorm stopped chatting in favour of observing this conversation. 

“Don’t be stupid, Jen!” Cathy looked kind of scandalized, which would have been interesting to ponder over if Rose wasn’t feeling so blindsided at the moment. “Of course they are!”

“Wait, what?” Rose held up a hand in confusion, an unconscious imitation of her mother. “No we’re not.”

“You’re not?” Daphne Atkins, one of the other girls echoed in surprise.

Rose frowned, feeling more befuddled by the minute. “Do people think that we are?” When had she ever given anyone the slightest impression that she thought of him in that way?

“Well, I did.” Cathy said rather unnecessarily. “I mean, you two spend a lot of time together. I don’t think he talks to any girl as much as he does to you.”

The others nodded in agreement, and Rose frowned further. Was _that_ what they were basing this on? “That’s because we study together. You know, with Albus? Our mutual best friend?”

“That’s what _I_ said!” Jenna made a face at Cathy, who stuck her tongue back at her childishly. “So it’s okay if I ask him out.”

“You mean….you fancy him?” Rose stared at Jenna, who giggled and nodded shyly. “But why?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Daphne snorted. “He’s one of the hottest guys in our year.”

Rose felt her throat going dry. “ _What_?” She eked out.

“He’s tall and blond and he’s got the most piercing eyes.” Jenna sighed. “And he’s smart and gentlemanly. He once helped me with my trunk on the train to here.”

“And he’s got nice arms too.” Cathy added happily, forcing Rose to envision Scorpius’ arms, which she’d had ample opportunity to observe during their Quidditch games at home, especially since Scorpius usually played Beater. So what if they were nice?

“Since you’re not attached to him or anything,” Jenna moved to sit next to Rose on her bed, “maybe you can help me. What kind of girls does he like?”

“I don’t know.” Rose replied dumbly. “It’s not exactly the kind of thing we discuss over a Potions study session!”

“I think he’d fancy someone like Rose.” Maria Smith, one of the girls who hadn’t offered her opinion yet suddenly piped up. Rose gaped at her, having always thought that Maria was one of the more sensible Gryffindor girls in her year. “It’d be just like Romeo and Juliet.”

“Who?” Daphne looked confused. “Are they in Gryffindor?”

\--

Rose wasn’t paying much attention to the unfinished essay in front of her, as her mind kept wandering back to the strange conversation in her dorm. She honestly had never genuinely considered being romantically involved with Scorpius, to any extent. She’d also never realised that other people around them had obviously thought it might be a reality.

After that enlightening conversation, she couldn’t help but observe him more closely, to see what it was about him that the other girls found so appealing. And she had to admit, they weren’t wrong about his physical attractiveness at least. In fact, she’d seen a few girls practically swooning over him. 

It wasn’t just that he was tall or blond or handsome, but he carried himself well, which she was willing to bet had been drilled into him as soon as he started walking. It made Rose feel even more critical about her own appearance – a little too chunky, not tall enough, uncoordinated… and the list went on.

Rose sighed, causing Scorpius and Albus to look up at her. “Are you alright?” Albus asked her in concern.

“Hm?” She blinked. “Yeah, of course.”

Scorpius frowned slightly. “You haven’t written anything for the past few minutes.” He leaned forward to peer at the book she had been referring to, and Rose leaned back immediately, suddenly all too aware of his proximity. “That must be one fascinating book.”

“Oh, shut up.” She said rudely and quickly scribbled another sentence down.

Scorpius and Albus shared a look. “Someone’s tetchy today.” Scorpius commented before returning to his own essay.

Rose rolled her eyes and ignored him. How could those girls think he was gentlemanly? All Jenna would have to do was go out with Scorpius for a week before she’d see his true colours. And yet, the thought of them dating didn’t quite sit well with Rose. She decided to ignore this unfathomable feeling and concentrate on her homework.

\--

Rose and Albus stared as Scorpius offered his arm to a giggling Jenna and made their way to Hogsmeade. 

“I can’t believe he’s actually going on a date with her.” Rose commented.

“What are you trying to say, really?” Albus decided to check before offering his opinion.

Rose shrugged as they too began the trek down to the village. “I guess I just thought if he fancied someone, it’d be someone…less, um, girly.” She waved a hand in the general direction of the couple.

Albus’ eyes widened. “You mean you think he’s _gay_?”

“No, that’s not what I meant!” She protested, though the image of Scorpius making lovesick eyes at another strapping young man made her chuckle. “You know, _girly_ , as in, all giggly and airheaded and perky.”

“Jenna’s not an airhead.” Albus weakly tried to defend their year-mate, even though he could see Rose’s point. 

“You’re right, that was mean of me.” Rose sighed. Then a thought occurred to her and she turned to her cousin with a grin. “Has anyone asked you out to Hogsmeade before? Or have you asked anyone?”

“No.” Albus said with a slight tinge of embarrassment. “Why are you asking? You’d know if I had.”

“Look, I know you don’t tell me everything.” Rose explained patiently. “I’m just curious, that’s all. If you were seeing someone, I’d like to hear it from you, not from some random person who caught you snogging in a broom closet.”

Albus felt a little ill at Rose’s mention of snogging. “Alright, I get your point. Can we please stop talking about this already?”

“Okay, you prude.” Rose smiled. “Off to Honeydukes we go!”

\--

“So, are you going to spill or am I going to have to do this the hard way?” Rose began conversationally as she and Scorpius began their patrol. 

They’d been assigned as patrol partners for the beginning of this year, as part of the system in which each prefect was paired with someone from their year of the opposite gender, rotating between houses twice a year. The Head Boy and Girl claimed that it was in order to foster a sense of inter-house friendship, but Rose rather suspected it was the Headmistress’s way of sensing who could work well with whom, which would factor into her choice of the next Head Boy and Girl.

Meanwhile, Scorpius stared at Rose in apprehension, wondering what on earth she was talking about. Rose noticed the bewilderment on his face and huffed in exasperation. “I’m talking about your Hogsmeade trip with Jenna.”

“Oh.” Scorpius looked a little uncomfortable. “What about it?”

“How was it?” Rose asked pleasantly, though it felt like extracting teeth.

“It was…okay.” Scorpius shrugged and didn’t elaborate. 

Rose stared at him in disbelief. “You manage to write at least six extra inches for every essay we’re assigned, and yet can’t spend more than three words to describe your date?”

“Why are you so interested in my date, anyway?” Scorpius asked suspiciously.

Rose stopped to ponder this, and realised that she had been hoping that he’d say the date was awful and that he didn’t fancy Jenna Freeman, and that he’d go to Hogsmeade with her and Albus henceforth. Merlin, she was acting like some sort of possessive girlfriend! 

Scorpius figured that she wasn’t going to reply soon, and rolled his eyes. “Is your life so boring that you feel the need to delve into mine?”

“Friends ask each other about this kind of thing!” She retorted, ignoring how her heartbeat quickened when he quirked a smile at her. “You can’t escape my interrogation.”

“Really?” He raised a brow challengingly.

“Yeah, I’ve got you to myself for the next two hours.” Rose declared triumphantly. “And you know how tenacious I am.”

“I don’t know, you were pretty quick to give up trying to beat me on that Herbology essay the other day.” Scorpius said thoughtfully. “No wonder you only got an O for that.”

“What?” She stopped and folded her arms crossly. “How can you get any higher than an O? And don’t think I didn’t notice you trying to change the subject, you tosser.”

“I got an O plus.” He grinned before increasing his pace and leaving her in his wake.

“What do you mean, O _plus_?”

\--

Rose stalked off towards one of the shelves to find a copy of _From Skin to Scales: A History of Animal Transfiguration_ , and nearly jumped in fright when she realised that Albus had followed her.

“What’s the matter?” Albus asked, glancing back at their study table before meeting her gaze. 

“She’s just getting on my nerves, that’s all.” Rose gritted her teeth. “What’s the point of joining our study group if all she does is flirt with him in front of us and whine about how difficult Transfiguration is?”

Albus winced at Rose’s harsh assessment of Jenna’s presence. True, Albus could do with a little less of the open flirtation he’d witnessed, but it was also kind of nice to have someone who wasn’t a genius at their study table. It was easy to be overwhelmed by how quickly Scorpius’ and Rose’s minds worked.

“Is that all that’s bothering you?” He probed hesitantly, sensing that something else was fuelling her anger and that Jenna’s annoying attitude was just the icing on the cake.

Rose hated how perceptive her cousin was sometimes, but she couldn’t very well tell him that Scorpius bringing Jenna into _their_ private study group rankled, stemming from an irrational feeling that this time with Scorpius was hers, and not for anyone else to intrude. It wasn’t that she _fancied_ Scorpius, of course – it was just hard to see another person occupy such a seemingly important place in his life when he was supposed to be their friend. “Maybe I’m just tired.” She hedged.

“Look, I know you don’t think she’s right for him,” Albus said, “and maybe she’s not the kind of person you’re used to hanging out with, but we need to be supportive of Scorpius.”

“Do we really?” Rose asked sceptically, though they could both tell she didn’t mean it.

“Take it as an opportunity to learn to get along with someone difficult.” Albus suggested. “After all, you’re the one who wants to go into international magical cooperation.”

“I hate you sometimes.” Rose sighed, but nodded like a martyr and headed back to their table with a forced smile.

\--

While Hogwarts professors mostly gave out individual homework, sometimes they opted for students to complete assignments together, since this tended to allow for more interesting content as well as fewer assignments for them to mark. Obviously this couldn’t be done too often, to prevent lazier students from simply relying on the smarter or more diligent partners.

Rose had found that professors very rarely allowed them to do assignments in groups of three, almost always assigning pair-work. And while infrequent, it still presented some awkward moments for the three of them as to who would pair up with whom. 

While Rose was more used to working with Albus, whom she obviously liked a lot more, she often found herself wanting to work with Scorpius just because she knew that their combined brains would produce an unparalleled standard of work. And she felt grossly disloyal to Albus for thinking in this manner, but she couldn’t help but think that perhaps Scorpius harboured similar thoughts.

So when Professor Boot announced the latest paired assignment, she told Albus that she had an idea for this project that she’d wanted to do with Scorpius, and her good-natured cousin went to find another partner. “Hey, we’re doing this one together, right?” She reminded Scorpius.

To her surprise, he looked a little sheepish. “Actually, I thought I might do this one with Jen.” He indicated his girlfriend who was sitting next to him and looking a little surprised at Rose’s words.

Rose felt her heart sink a little. “But we agreed that we wanted to do some extra credit on the history and intricacies of cross-species transfiguration for this assignment, remember?” Her gaze flicked momentarily to Albus, who was already chatting pleasantly with a Eurasian Hufflepuff girl about the assignment, before returning to eyeball Scorpius.

“Oh, right!” Scorpius sat up straighter as he recalled it. “We were going to include the notable turning points in spell execution and the pitfalls of inaccurate incantation, especially the-”

“-Burke catastrophe of 1897.” Rose completed his sentence along with him, looking more satisfied now that her friend hadn’t suddenly lost his wits despite the distraction of a girlfriend. “I mean, I’m sure Jen doesn’t mind doing the assignment with Maria. Maria’s great at Transfiguration too.”

Maria didn’t look at all offended and shrugged nonchalantly, even though she was aware that pairing up with Jenna wouldn’t exactly ensure them an excellent grade. She peered at Scorpius, wondering with interest which girl he’d pick.

Jenna, on the other hand, looked rather put out by this. “Look, Rose, surely you two can pair up for other assignments in those classes I’m not taking. It’s not like you really _need_ this extra credit with how well you’re performing anyway.”

Rose wasn’t able to come up with a coherent reply, speechless at how the other Gryffindor girl didn’t seem to understand how she and Scorpius actually _liked_ researching and going above and beyond what was required in their assignments. So she decided to ignore her and return to her original target. “Scorpius,” she tried to sound as patient as possible even though she was seething on the inside, “we already decided that doing this extra credit would be beneficial-”

“Now, now, have you lot chosen your partners already?” Professor Boot came over to their side of the classroom. “Did I hear something about extra credit?” It was kind of obvious he had been a Ravenclaw, from the way his face kind of lit up at the mention of students keen on researching more and improving their learning.

Rose stopped talking, not wanting to force Scorpius into partnering with her by letting Professor Boot assume anything. Scorpius looked a little conflicted, and hoped he wouldn’t regret it when he opened his mouth and said, “Rose and I were thinking of adding a component to our project by including the history and intricacies of cross-species transfiguration.”

Jenna’s jaw dropped and Rose tried to stifle a victorious smile, while Professor Boot accepted Scorpius’ explanation and beamed approvingly at his two best students. “Very good, I was hoping you two would be taking this upon yourselves. Come and see me at the next class prepared to discuss the exact points you’re hoping to cover. And I assume Miss Freeman is partnering with Miss Smith?”

Maria nodded for the both of them, since Jenna looked like she was about to have a fit. “Come on, Jenna, you don’t want to work with someone like Malfoy.” She grinned. “He might make you do extra credit too.” 

\--

Unaware of the strife occurring back at that table, Albus had decided to approach the girl nearest to him who looked like she didn’t have any partner as of yet. What was her name again?

“Hi.” He gave her his most winning smile as he shuffled his seat over to hers. “Um, do you have a partner for the assignment yet?”

She shook her head. “I’m afraid not.”

“What a coincidence. Neither do I.” Albus joked, eliciting an involuntary grin from her.

She leaned over to glance behind him at Rose Weasley gesturing and arguing with Scorpius Malfoy and a few other people she wasn’t too familiar with. “You’re not going to partner with…?”

He followed her gaze to his two best friends bickering. “Oh, they’ve got some extra credit planned for this assignment.” He explained. “So, do you think we could do this together?” He really hoped she wouldn’t say no, and wondered why he felt so nervous. It wasn’t as if he was asking her _out_.

“Oh, of course.” She smiled.

Albus smiled back in relief, but then realised that he couldn’t remember her name, though he was positive her surname was an Asian one – not that that helped much.

“I’m Meredith, by the way.” She introduced herself, saving Albus the embarrassment of having to ask the name of someone who had been his year-mate for the past five years. “Meredith Lee.”

“I’m Albus Potter.” He stuck out a friendly hand for her to shake.

Then Meredith laughed. “I might be Muggle-born, but even I know who the children of Harry Potter are.” Then her voice dropped to a mock-whisper. “Though I admit to occasionally mixing up your name and your brother’s.”

He gasped in exaggerated offense, and then gave her a conspiratorial grin. “If you ever get confused again, just remember: Al rhymes with pal.”

“Not bad.” She nodded approvingly. “My friends call me Merry.”

Albus raised a brow and chuckled. “You’re called Merry Lee. Merrily.”

“Wow. Never heard that one before.” She said dryly. “Perhaps I should go around telling people to remember that Meredith rhymes with death.”

“Is it too late to change partners?” He pondered. “I’m not sure I want to be associated with death.”

“I’m afraid you’re stuck with me now.” She replied solemnly, and somehow, that sounded just fine with him.

\--

“That didn’t look pretty, mate.” Albus winced as Jenna rushed past him with a whoosh of air, ignoring the librarian’s irritated reminder not to run in the library.

Scorpius groaned and resisted the urge to slam his forehead on the desk. “Seriously, I don’t get girls. One moment they’re all bright and cheerful, the next they’re accusing you of being unfaithful and storming off.”

“Why would she think you were cheating on her?” Albus gaped at his best friend, who wasn’t that sort of bloke, as far as he knew.

“It’s all because of that bloody Transfiguration assignment!” Scorpius growled in frustration. “She kept harping about how I ought to have stood up for pairing with her instead of ‘giving in’ to Rose’s demands, and how embarrassing it was that her boyfriend doesn’t have the guts to say no to another girl… and now she brings it up every time I say something remotely related to Rose.” He allowed his head to drop onto his hands.

Albus frowned. “Does she… feel _threatened_ by Rosie?” It sounded a little silly even as he said it, but then again, girls were strange creatures. Who could really understand their thought processes?

“That’s what she implied.” Scorpius sighed. “And it’s all rubbish. I’ve never thought of Rose in that way – and definitely not since I started dating Jenna. I don’t know why she’s being so ridiculous.”

“That’s because she has a possessive streak a mile wide.” Rose’s voice startled both of them, and Albus realised that she must have heard at least what Scorpius had just said. Thankfully, she didn’t seem upset by what Scorpius had said. Then again, why would she be upset? It wasn’t as if she fancied Scorpius, right?

“Rose, I-”

“I get it.” She cut Scorpius off. “Girlfriends tend to feel uneasy when their boyfriends have female mates. Just give her time to cool off, buy her something pretty and I’m sure she’ll forgive you in no time.” She concluded briskly.

Scorpius considered this and had to admit that this was likely to happen. “Okay.” Then he looked at her searchingly. “You don’t mind?”

Rose raised a brow. “Even if I did, would you break up with her because of it?” Her tone clearly suggested that such a notion was absurd, though a tiny part of Scorpius felt that if it really came down to that, it seemed silly to lose a friend and rival like Rose Weasley over a madly jealous girlfriend. “Don’t look so serious, I was kidding.” She rolled her eyes.

“You know, Rose, they say that if you have to explain when you’re kidding, it generally means you’re not a very good kidder.” Albus said with a straight face, earning a light punch from his cousin. “Anyway, even if Jenna’s jealous, she ought to know that she can trust you. Relationships need to be founded on mutual trust and honesty.”

“You sound like Uncle Harry during one of his speeches.” Rose commented dryly.

“Or like some cheesy couples therapy manual.” Scorpius added, though he was finally smiling again.

“Read any of those lately?” Rose smiled sweetly at him, and they were off to their usual banter.

\--

As Rose made her way among the stands, she was slightly surprised to spot her Hufflepuff year-mate standing with the Gryffindors as they waited for the commentator to announce the players. “Meredith!” She called and pushed through to get to the other girl, apologising left and right to the people she was knocking over.

“Hey, Rose!” Meredith smiled at her.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cheering for Gryffindor before.” Rose commented slyly. “Big Quidditch fan, are you?”

“As a matter of fact, I am.” Meredith replied equally coyly. “And in case you didn’t know, our team would much rather have to play against Gryffindor for the Cup than Ravenclaw.”

“Huh. So it wouldn’t really interest you to know that Albus isn’t playing today.”

“He isn’t?” Meredith’s eyes widened in shock. “But how can that be? He asked me to come and watch him…” She trailed off as she noted the mischievous grin on Rose’s face and realised she’d been caught. “Unfair play, Rose Weasley.” She attempted to look stern, but it kind of failed due to the furious blush that had risen to her cheeks.

“All’s fair in love and war.” Rose quoted the Muggle idiom, and patted Meredith on the shoulder. “And I’m sure Al will be ecstatic to know you’re cheering for him.”

“You think so?” Meredith asked doubtfully as she inadvertently glanced at the Gryffindors surrounding her, several of whom were younger girls who were cheering specifically for Albus.

“Positive.”

\--

Before they knew it, it was approaching the Christmas holidays, which meant that the professors were piling on the homework, especially for NEWT classes. Rose spent most of the prefect patrols she shared with Scorpius discussing the finer points of their latest lessons, which always put her into a good mood.

That good mood was slightly ruined by them catching a couple snogging in a classroom, which reminded Rose of Jenna. And it really wasn’t that she had any sort of crush on her friend – she was over that by now – but it was just difficult to get along with Jenna when the other girl didn’t seem to like her that much. 

After Scorpius had docked points and sent them off, he expected Rose to continue discussing the Felix Felicis potion, but she appeared to have forgotten what she’d been saying. “What are your Christmas plans?” Rose asked instead. “Are you going to be doing anything with Jenna?”

Scorpius looked a little uncomfortable at the question. “I haven’t thought about it yet.”

“I suppose you’re spending Christmas with your parents?” She inquired.

He nodded. “I’m afraid I won’t be bestowing my awesome presence on you and your family this holiday.”

“We’ll try to survive.” Rose replied dryly. “Although I’ll probably be sobbing into my pillow at night from the loss.”

“If it helps, you can spend that time looking forward to seeing me once we return for classes again.” He smirked, enjoying the light-hearted banter. “I’m sure Albus will regale you with tales from the Malfoy manor when you see him.”

“Is there something going on between the two of you that I should know?” She raised an amused brow. “After all, bringing him home to meet your parents might give Jenna the wrong idea – unless you’re planning on bringing her along too.”

Her words triggered the sudden image of Jenna standing in the Malfoy manor and having a meal with his parents. He really didn’t think that would be a pleasant encounter, because, to be honest, Jenna Freeman wasn’t the sort of girl he imagined his parents would approve of. His parents, especially his father, had little patience for people like Jenna, who were flighty, a little silly, and unable to keep up witty conversation.

Was he _ashamed_ of his girlfriend? His eyes widened slightly at the troubling realisation. To be fair, it wasn’t as if he was dating her with any intention of the relationship becoming serious to the point of meeting his parents (which would undoubtedly imply marriage to them). But then what was she to him? Was he just wasting his time with a pretty face?

“Scorpius?” Rose eyed her patrol partner suspiciously, taking in his unusually blank expression. Then she quirked a smile and poked him hard in the side, eliciting a strangled yelp and jump from him.

He turned to glare at her. “What the hell was that for, Weasley?”

“For a moment there I thought you’d been Petrified.” She explained smoothly, an unrepentant grin adorning her face.

“Let’s just…finish the patrol, okay?” He gritted his teeth and stalked down the corridor, leaving her to hurry after him and wonder why he was in such a mood.


	8. 6th Year - Part B

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Rose deals with weight issues, Scorpius is sneaky, Albus finally makes a move, and a bit of Quidditch is played.

“So who’ve you got your eye on now?”

Rose rolled her eyes as she tried to concentrate on her essay, finding herself annoyed and a little surprised at how the two boys at the desk behind hers had not stopped gossiping for the past fifteen minutes. She now knew more about the Ravenclaw Quidditch team’s exploits and a few seemingly slutty Slytherin girls than she’d ever cared to know. 

Worse, a third friend had joined their table – a handsome Hufflepuff seventh-year by the name of Jack Hamilton, whom Rose had had a tiny crush on the previous year, and she couldn’t help but be curious about his opinion.

“What are you guys talking about?” Jack seemed to be avoiding their line of interrogation.

“Come on, man, I saw you looking over at the Gryffindor table the other day. Someone catch your fancy?”

Meredith looked up from her essay and exchanged glances with Rose, who tried to look exasperated. “Boys.” Meredith mouthed in agreement before turning back to flip to the next page of her textbook.

“Let me guess.” The second gossipy boy said. “That blonde one – Yvonne Eversleigh.”

“Nah.” Jack sounded disgruntled. “That girl’s got less brain than a Kneazle.”

Rose winced at the harsh assessment of the seventh-year girl, who while somewhat ditzy, was still a fairly warm-hearted girl, and fiercely loyal to their house.

“Oh, that sixth-year…what’s her name? Mary Smith or something equally common.”

“You know Jack doesn’t go for those boring girls.” The first boy said dismissively, and Rose wanted to stand up and tell him that Maria was a terribly interesting person, thank you very much. “And I think Louis Weasley’s got his eye on that one.”

“Really?” The second boy echoed. “Wait, that reminds me. Rose Weasley.”

Rose stiffened at the mention of her name, and Meredith looked up again in concern.

“That girl’s a little too brainy for our Jack, isn’t she?”

“Nothing wrong with being smart.” Jack countered, and Rose inwardly cheered, but her heart sank at his next comment. “But I prefer my girlfriends to be thinner, and Weasley’s not quite…”

“Yeah, I see what you mean.”

“She could stand to lose a few-”

By now Rose’s face was burning, because weight was a slightly sensitive issue for her, but she’d never heard a boy – especially a boy she could have easily fancied – cite it as a reason not to ask her out. She suddenly regretted all the food she’d stuffed herself with over the Christmas break.

Meredith had heard it too and seriously considered stalking over to that table and giving them a piece of her mind. But she glanced at Rose, who was stalwartly appearing to ignore them, and realised that the girl might be even more embarrassed if Meredith (who wasn’t by any means Rose’s close friend) created a scene. So she followed the Gryffindor girl and tried to tune out the insensitive prats who had gone on to outline the merits of dating slim girls.

\--

Rose stared at her reflection in the mirror in the prefects’ bathroom. She’d always known that she would never be as enviably slim as some of her cousins or the other girls in her year, but she’d never really thought she was _fat_ , until now. What exactly did people see when they saw her?

After overhearing that horrible conversation, Rose couldn’t help but compare herself to every girl she sat next to, and even a few of the boys. It didn’t help that Maria, Meredith, Lily and several others were all slimmer than her. Of course, she knew objectively that she wasn’t by any means the biggest girl in school, but it seemed like she had a long way to go before becoming the ideal size. 

It was quite embarrassing to notice that she probably weighed more than a few boys in her year. Suddenly any little fantasies she’d ever had about being carried by a boyfriend or sitting on his lap were replaced by a fear of weighing him down. And underlying that was the insidious thought that perhaps she needn’t bother worrying about a boyfriend since she’d evidently never attract one with her current physique.

As a practical witch, Rose began outlining solutions to this problem. There were lots of advertised potions out there for witches wanting to lose weight, but many of them either had limited effectiveness or potential nasty side effects. Besides, they cost quite a bit, and Rose didn’t think her parents would approve her spending money like that.

She might be able to find a potion for brewing herself, but that too was fraught with uncertainty and risks. And if such potions were so easily self-brewed, then no one would be able to make a living selling them. Maybe there was a charm somewhere she could dig up to use – though Rose had never encountered any such charm in all her reading, and she was the best Charms student in the school.

Rose sighed and straightened her already-straight school tie. It looked like she was stuck with reducing her food intake, at least until she found a magical alternative. She looked at her reflection once more despairingly, before leaving the bathroom.

\--

Scorpius observed Rose as they worked in the prefects’ lounge on questions for the Wizarding Quiz Bowl that they’d been asked by the professors to organise for the students in the first four years. It was an event where students from different houses could come together to form groups to participate in a fun quiz challenge and win prizes.

Rose had been rather proud to be selected along with Scorpius and some others to form the organising committee for the event. The professors typically chose the top-scoring sixth-year student for each subject to form a group of twelve to come up with the questions. 

However, for their year, Rose had come out top for Charms, Transfiguration, History of Magic and Muggle Studies, while Scorpius was the first for Potions, Herbology, and Defence Against the Dark Arts. So they had assured their professors that they could handle all the questions for those subjects, and had decided it would be more efficient to work on questions together, since each of them was second in the class that the other one was first in.

But this evening as he and Rose worked silently on their questions, Scorpius noticed that Rose was constantly yawning and losing focus. Come to think of it, she’d been looking a little sickly recently, and Scorpius wondered whether she was coming down with some illness. It didn’t look like she was just suffering from a cold, or Scorpius would have told her to go to the hospital wing to get some Pepper-Up Potion.

Then he fished around in his bag for something and then chucked it at her table, startling her into scrawling a wonky line across her parchment in shock. “What was that for?” She asked crossly.

“Chocolate Frog.” Scorpius indicated, unwrapping one for himself to eat. “It helps with concentration.” He looked at her and wondered why she was staring at the chocolate as if it was poisoned. Did she really doubt his good intentions?

“Are you saying I’m not concentrating?” Rose demanded, steadfastly ignoring the chocolate in front of her.

“It’s just a chocolate, Rose.” He looked a little taken aback at her snappishness. “You don’t have to eat it if you don’t want to.”

“Well, I don’t.” She replied stiffly, and then relaxed when she saw the slight twinge of hurt that flashed across his face. “But thanks for offering.”

“Are you feeling well?” He decided to check, being the good friend that he was. Albus wouldn’t be happy if he found out that Rose was back to working herself into a stupor like last year. “And just to clarify, I’m not saying I doubt your capacity to come up with quiz questions, cover the material appropriately, or derive the point system.”

Rose gaped for a moment before breaking into a wry smile. “I don’t really sound like that, do I?”

Scorpius nodded solemnly, relieved that she didn’t look cross anymore. “Like one of my father’s lawyers when they’re trying to argue with him.”

“Well, thanks for your concern.” She replied with equal gravity. “I promise to inform you the moment I feel ill, so that you can start practicing early for your Healer career.”

Scorpius hadn’t even thought about that, and grinned back at her.

\--

It was the game between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and Rose wearily made her way to the stands, finding Scorpius standing among the Gryffindors as he usually did whenever Albus was playing against a house that wasn’t Slytherin. Seriously, if it wasn’t for Albus playing, she wouldn’t be here at all. She vaguely wondered whether Meredith wanted Albus to win or her own house to win.

“Hey, you’re late.” Scorpius frowned slightly.

“I got distracted with the History of Magic quiz questions.” Rose explained as she focused on the fourteen players zooming around the pitch and ignored the slight pain she felt in her stomach. “The Goblin Revolution of 1654 was-”

“Oh, please don’t start discussing History here.” Jenna pleaded. “We’re at a Quidditch game! We should be cheering!”

“Of course.” Rose smiled tightly, finding it a little hard to concentrate when the stands were filled to the brim with spectators, and it was all so _loud_. A rational part of her brain told her that this was how every game was, and that it was silly of her to be complaining about such things.

Then Lily did a particularly clever-looking move to avoid one of the Hufflepuff Chasers, and managed to put the Quaffle through the left hoop. Rose automatically stood up to clap and cheer, which resulted in her feeling like all the blood was rushing down from her head to her legs, and she blindly grabbed for the nearest supporting structure, which was Scorpius.

He turned to look at her curiously, but his expression turned to one of shock as Rose’s legs gave way and she collapsed on him. He narrowly prevented her head from hitting the bench, and immediately bent down to shake her. “Rose? Rose! Wake up!”

To his relief, she groaned and blinked. “What happened?” She asked dazedly.

“You fainted, that’s what.” Scorpius was frowning now, and carefully scooped her up. “I’m taking you to the hospital wing, and Madam Fitzpatrick will take care of you.”

Jenna stared as her boyfriend carried the half-conscious girl off the stands, and felt a pang of jealousy.

\--

“Madam Fitzpatrick says it’s nothing to worry about.” Rose said stubbornly.

Albus threw his hands up in the air in frustration, and Scorpius nearly did the same. “You’re clearly not looking after yourself if you’re going around fainting at games-”

“’Going around fainting?’ It has happened _once_ , Albus Potter!” Rose retorted indignantly. “And it’s nothing a potion can’t fix.”

“Madam Fitzpatrick says you haven’t been eating or resting properly.” Scorpius informed her. “Is it because of the Quiz Bowl?”

“No!” Rose sat up quickly and then blinked as a wave of dizziness washed over her. “I am absolutely capable of contributing my part to the Bowl.”

Rose was perhaps one of the most stubborn people Scorpius knew, and it looked like she wasn’t going to give in anytime soon. “Okay, but you’ll need to follow Madam Fitzpatrick’s orders and take care of yourself.”

“Yeah, or I’ll write to Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron.” Albus said as threateningly as he could, which, being Albus, only came across as mildly concerning for Rose. 

“You’re going to tell on me to my parents?” She scoffed. “That’s so mature, Al.”

“You know, I’m sure if Professor Longbottom hears about this, he’ll probably tell you that you’re taking on too much, and relieve you of some of your responsibilities with the Bowl or with your prefect duties.” Scorpius examined his nails nonchalantly. “Especially if your fellow student expresses concern over your coping ability.”

“What rubbish…” Rose spluttered angrily, before feeling another sharp twinge in her stomach that made her wince and bring a hand to her abdomen involuntarily. Albus rushed around the wing to call for Madam Fitzpatrick.

Scorpius lifted a brow, pretending not to be concerned. “You were saying?”

\--

Albus tried to ignore his heart beating at double-time as he made his way to the desk that Meredith was seated at. She had mentioned during Transfiguration class that she had something to tell him, and judging by the serious expression on her normally cheerful face, it wasn’t some simple matter. 

He had momentarily (okay, frequently) toyed with the idea that she might be confessing her feelings for him. But the more he thought about it the less he allowed himself to hope, just in case it was something on a totally different track. He didn’t really want to have his hopes dashed and find himself picking up several miserable pieces of his broken heart.

Albus shook his head exasperatedly. He was becoming ridiculously melodramatic about his crush on the Hufflepuff girl. Rose would laugh at him if she found out. Though a small part of him thought that his cousin might have figured it out already. “Hey, Merry.”

“Hey, Al.” Meredith looked up and smiled briefly as he slid into the seat opposite from her.

“What’s up?”

Meredith leaned forward slightly. “Well, you know how you told me that Rose fainted during the Quidditch game last Saturday?”

Albus felt an acute sense of disappointment that this was what the girl wanted to talk about, but hid it well. “Oh, yeah. Madam Fitzpatrick said she just needed to eat and rest properly.”

“Have you actually noticed whether she’s been eating properly recently?” Meredith persisted.

“I don’t really notice these things…” Albus frowned as he tried to recall. “But maybe it does seem like she eats less than she used to. And you know how she gets about studying – sometimes she’s so busy in the library that she forgets to eat lunch or dinner.” Even as he said it as the most normal thing in the world, he got the feeling that Meredith thought it was more than that.

“She’s lost weight over this term.” Both of them looked up in surprise to see Scorpius standing there. “Sorry for interrupting your conversation.” He sat down as well, and Albus shifted over to make more space for him.

Meredith felt a lot less certain about the conversation because she didn’t know Scorpius half as well as she knew Albus. Then again, even she could see that Scorpius was a good friend of Rose’s, and probably had her best interests at heart. He also seemed to be a sensible guy, and not the sort to go around telling secrets. “You can’t let Rose know I told you this, okay?”

She waited for them to nod and then recounted what had happened two months ago in the library when Rose had overheard the comment about her weight. And obviously Meredith had her suspicions about Rose taking dieting too far in response to these comments. She couldn’t help but swallow nervously as she saw Scorpius’ expression grow darker.

Albus looked shocked, but shook his head as he tried to rationalise it. “Surely Rose wouldn’t be so affected by what some idiot said about her size. She usually doesn’t care about what other people say about her. Couldn’t it just be that she’s overworking herself again?”

Meredith shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know, but if anyone’s able to find out, it would be you two.”

Scorpius nodded. “By the way, do you happen to know who those boys were?” His tone was casual, but Meredith wasn’t stupid enough to think he was just asking out of pure curiosity. Still, she wouldn’t mind if he were to do something about them. 

\--

Over the next few days, Rose found Albus to be rather irritatingly concerned about her eating and resting habits, but couldn’t very well refuse to eat when he stared her down at every meal. And to be honest, all those Puking Pastilles she’d used when she hadn’t had the willpower to resist food were starting to make her throat feel like it was being scraped raw.

Even though she guessed it was just because of what Madam Fitzpatrick had said, she wondered if Meredith might be aware of her situation and have told Albus. Particularly because he occasionally said weird things like “You’re too skinny, Rose”, or “If you don’t eat you’ll get Vanishing Sickness”. 

“I say, what’s happened to those Hufflepuffs?” Maria commented suddenly, and both Albus and Rose looked up from their conversation to stare at the Hufflepuff table where a minor ruckus was occurring. 

To their surprise, Jack Hamilton and his two friends – Albus vaguely remembered their names as Doherty and Tyler, but decided to refer to them as Dumb and Dumber – had somehow become a lot paunchier, and were now lumbering towards the dining table while the rest of their House was pointing at them.

“I heard something went wrong during their Potions class.” Lily giggled. “But it only affected three of them, and they weren’t even making anything related to Engorging. I bet it was a prank.”

“There are two things here that confuse me.” Rose managed to eke out. “Why they didn’t go to the hospital wing to get fixed, and where Lily gets all her information from.”

“I have lots of friends who like telling me things.” Lily said primly before breaking into a grin. “I just happened to bump into Merry before dinner and she told me what happened.”

“Since when were you good friends with Merry?” Albus asked suspiciously.

“I don’t know, perhaps ever since she started hanging around my brother a lot.” Lily shot back with a pointed look. “And since I’m also best friends with Madam Fitzpatrick,” she ignored Albus’ cough of disbelief, “apparently she refused to fix them because of some reason.”

“You look rather pleased, I must say.” Maria commented at Lily’s gleeful expression.

“Well, one of my year-mates from ‘Puff said she heard them saying rude things about a girl in their House because she’s overweight.” Lily looked annoyed. “And now perhaps they’ll get to know how it feels to be judged based on appearance.”

\--

It took all of five minutes of interrogation for Meredith to admit to telling Albus and Scorpius about what had transpired, and Rose was angry at first, but knew she couldn’t fault the girl for just being caring. It was what made her a good match for Albus, if her idiot of a cousin every got around to asking her out.

“And was that…fattening prank their idea as well?”

Meredith looked uncomfortable. “They never mentioned anything about getting back at those guys. Honest, Rose. And I don’t think Albus would do something like that.”

What about Scorpius, Rose wanted to ask. The boy was smart and sneaky and fully capable of pulling such a thing off without any traces leading back to him. But that would imply that he cared enough about her hurt feelings to exact revenge, and Rose had to admit that he’d never shown such a degree of concern for her before. And if she confronted him about it, he’d probably make some snide comment about how arrogant she was to think he’d do such a thing for her sake.

No, it wasn’t worth the blow to her pride. Rose sighed.

Meredith suddenly placed a hand on her arm. “Um, I know it’s probably none of my business, but I hope you haven’t taken those stupid boys’ words to heart.” Rose blinked in slight bemusement. “I mean, I know I’d be pretty cut up if a guy said such stuff about me – damn, I can’t believe I used to think he was hot-” 

That elicited a weak smile from Rose.

“-but shallow people like that aren’t worth you harming your health for.” Meredith said earnestly. “Anyone who judges you based on your size is an idiot for not seeing what a great person you are.”

“I…” Rose was surprised by her words. “…thanks, Merry.”

\--

Albus waited for Rose and Scorpius to walk ahead after their latest study session, and tried to muster up the courage to present the all-important Hogsmeade invitation to Merry. He had been hesitant at first, but Rose, who never lied when it came to things like these, had insisted that he ask her out before the lines between friendship and something more became too blurred.

“Hey, Merry?”

“Yeah?” She glanced at him questioningly.

“Um,” He could feel his palms getting sweaty, which was never pleasant. “I was just wondering, if, um…if you’d like to go to Hogsmeade together next weekend.”

“You mean… together as a study group?” She asked in confusion, gesturing to the four of them, although her heart was beating a lot quicker now as she hoped that wasn’t actually what he meant.

“Oh. Well, I actually meant just you and me.” He stuttered out, feeling the blood rush to his face.

“ _Oh_.” Meredith blushed as well. “I…that is…that would be nice. I’d like that.”

Albus’ face lit up with a bright smile. 

\--

Rose simply shook her head fondly at her cousin as he happily told her that Merry had said yes. “You could have asked her out two months ago and she’d have said yes, Al.” But her grin belied her dry words. “You’ll be the cutest couple in this school.”

Albus tried not to look too excited at the thought of being in an official relationship with Merry.

“But then what am I going to do?” Rose thought aloud in consternation. “Scorpius will be off with Jenna, and you’ll be with Merry. I guess I’ll go along with Maria and the others.”

Albus frowned slightly. “Uh, Rose?” She stopped rambling and looked at him. “Scorpius and Jenna aren’t together anymore.”

“ _What_?” She couldn’t believe her ears. “Wait, when did this happen? Are you sure?”

He gave her an exasperated look. “Of course I’m sure! He told me himself. And haven’t you noticed her absence from our study sessions?”

She gaped. “I just assumed she got tired of them. I didn’t think…why didn’t he say anything?”

“Not every sixteen-year old boy is that eager to spill his guts about relationship issues, Rose.” He informed her.

“But _you_ tell me everything.” Rose automatically replied, before realising how silly that statement was. “Right, of course. How’s he holding up?”

“He’s surprisingly okay.” Albus noted in relief. “They weren’t particularly…lovey-dovey to begin with, if you remember.” Rose tried to recall if this was true. “You know, not like Teddy and Victoire were. Are.”

She snorted. “Well, no one’s quite like the two of them. That’s hardly a basis for comparison.”

\--

“I’m not sure how I feel about spying on my best friend on his first date.” Scorpius mused as he followed just behind Rose.

“Then go back to the castle, you prude.” Rose ignored him and kept shadowing Albus and Meredith from a distance.

“It’s a good thing your ambition isn’t to be an Auror.” He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “I’m pretty sure you’d be caught by dark wizards in no time. Though I’m not sure what use they’d have for a nosey ginger. Perhaps they’d test out new potions on you.”

“Usually I’d reply with an insult, but it’s nice to see that you’re able to joke about such things now.” She said offhandedly. “Two years ago such a thought would have had you convulsing with angst.”

Even though her attention appeared to be totally focused on the new couple who had entered Honeydukes, she was still making observations about him which reminded him how much he’d changed since becoming acquainted with Rose Weasley.

When he didn’t reply, she turned around and gave him a look of concern. “Are you alright?”

“Hm?” He blinked. “Of course.”

Rose shrugged. “Sometimes I say things without thinking, and don’t realise that I hurt people.” Then she looked embarrassed. “Like when I was talking about how nauseating you and Jenna were going to be today. I didn’t know you two weren’t dating anymore. So I’m sorry if I made you feel-”

“Don’t be silly.” Scorpius cut her off. “It was a genuine display of ignorance and lack of observational skills on your part, which is hardly surprising.” She rolled her eyes and he smiled. “But I appreciate your apology.”

“You’re really okay, right?” She eyed him suspiciously.

“I’m flattered by your sudden interest in my welfare, Rose.” He raised a brow.

“I just don’t want your work ethic to be compromised by moping around after a girl.” She informed him tartly. 

“Please, as if I would mope around when I was the one who broke up with her.” He scoffed, and her interest was piqued. He gave in to her questioning gaze and explained that Jenna just wasn’t someone he wanted to be with in the long run. He decided not to mention how Jenna had claimed that he liked Rose Weasley a lot more than he realised and she couldn’t bear it any longer.

“I envisioned bringing her home over Christmas to meet my parents.” He admitted with a shudder. “ _That_ would have been fun.” He straightened up and schooled his expression into a stern copy of his father’s. “So, young lady, what are your plans for the future? Why would you make a worthy addition to the great and noble House of Malfoy?”

Rose had to laugh at his imitation. “They’re not as bad as you make them out to be.” She shook her head in amusement. 

Scorpius paused in his tracks. “How would you know?” He asked suspiciously.

“I met them at Teddy and Tori’s wedding, remember?” She pointed out. “They were perfectly nice to me.”

“Oh, of course. I totally forgot about that.” He blinked. The idea of Rose meeting his parents was strange. The idea of them liking her was even stranger.

“Don’t worry.” She reassured him seriously. “I only mentioned a few of your misdemeanours to them.”

\--

The train ride home was a cheerful one, as the young wizards and witches discussed some of the highlights of the year.

“I’m glad I passed Apparition classes.” Albus volunteered. “Especially considering how nervous I was about Splinching myself.”

“I wish I was seventeen.” Lily sighed. “Now you guys will get to do as much magic as you like at home.”

“Lily Potter, everyone knows you do underage magic when you think our parents don’t notice.” Albus shook his head. “You’re lucky the Ministry can’t tell who conducts which spells.”

“Perhaps they can.” Scorpius mused. “And they just don’t want to tell the Chosen One that his only daughter has been flouting the law.”

Lily scowled at him. “I bet you did it too.”

“The best part of the year was when we won the Quiz Bowl.” Hugo interrupted, bringing them back to the original topic.

“I was really proud of you guys.” Rose smiled.

“We asked Lorcan and Lysander and Roxanne to quiz us in preparation.” Lily admitted. “They said it was like revising for OWLs.”

“Thank goodness that’s over.” Albus remembered the horrors of fifth year all too well. Then he turned to Rose. “What about you?”

Several instances flashed in Rose’s mind, but one stood out above the rest. “I think my favourite moment was when you and Merry started dating officially.”

The rest of the compartment’s occupants catcalled loudly, making Albus blush furiously.

\--

Scorpius opened the thick parchment from Hogwarts and scanned through its contents, absently toying with the Head Boy badge in his fingers. 

He was a little surprised by his appointment to the title. Sure, he had the best grades, but he had to admit that the other male prefects were generally capable, hard-working individuals as well, who were possibly more caring towards the student population than he was. The most obvious example of this was Albus himself, who was a fairly all-rounded person and very kind and compassionate.

Why _hadn’t_ Albus been named Head Boy, then? 

Scorpius pondered this for a moment. Perhaps his best friend had been appointed as Quidditch Captain for Gryffindor, and wouldn’t have time to cope with both that and being Head Boy _and_ maintaining his grades. It wasn’t false modesty talking – Scorpius was genuinely certain that Albus would make a better Head Boy than himself if he didn’t have Quidditch to worry about.

But perhaps that realisation should then spur him on to being a better prefect and example for the younger students. And hopefully he would be able to improve as a leader, alongside the Head Girl. He continued reading the letter, and his heart gave a tiny leap in his chest when he saw that Rose had been chosen as Head Girl.

In all honesty, everyone kind of knew that Rose would be Head Girl, given that none of the other prefects came close in terms of academic achievement, reputation and diligence. And despite how Rose had denied such certainty when Albus had mentioned the issue, Scorpius knew that Rose would have been terribly disappointed if she hadn’t made the cut.

Now he would get to work alongside her for the whole year, and that somehow made him tingle with anticipation, which was rather odd. Then he remembered Jenna accusing him of liking Rose more than as a platonic friend, and wondered if it was true. It sounded ridiculous, but now that that idea was in his head, he couldn’t un-think it.


	9. 7th Year - Part A

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Rose evaluates her relationship, Scorpius tries to be a good Head Boy, and Albus has a lame sense of humour.

It was probably the last time he would be boarding the Hogwarts train here, Scorpius mused, as he stepped onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. If he had been a more sentimental type of guy, he might have paused to commemorate the feeling of poignancy. Instead, he looked around for Albus and Rose, who were usually easy to spot because of the large group they came in and the admiring glances at their parents.

He caught sight of Rose and was about to wave her over when he noticed that she was walking hand in hand with a boy who looked familiar. The realisation that she’d apparently gotten a boyfriend over summer hit him like a shockwave, and even he was surprised at the strong feeling of negativity within himself.

“Hey, there you are.” Albus clapped him on the back, and Scorpius could barely eke out a reply. “Come on, Head Boy, let’s grab a good compartment for our last train ride to Hogwarts.”

Scorpius nodded and followed his best friend, his mind still whirling with thoughts of Rose and the boyfriend, whom he now recognised as a seventh-year Hufflepuff by the name of Derek Ford. He’d had no idea Rose was even friends with him, let alone _dating_ him.

“Mate, are you alright?” Albus raised his voice slightly. “You’re not listening to a word I’m saying.”

“Of course I am.” Scorpius retorted stiffly before putting his bag onto the overhead rack. “You were talking about Merry.”

Albus couldn’t tell if Scorpius really had been listening or if he’d just made a lucky guess, but decided not to bother anyway. “Yeah, she’s sitting with us until we have the Prefects meeting and then she’ll go back to her Hufflepuff friends.”

Just the mention of the House put a tiny crease in Scorpius’ forehead. 

“Have you and Rose decided how to run the meeting?”

“Ah, not yet.” Scorpius blinked and tried not to think about Rose and Ford, which was proving to be quite the impossible task. “I was thinking of discussing it briefly here. Where is she?” He hoped his voice sounded casual.

“Eh, probably talking to Derek.” Albus paused and noticed the puzzled look on Scorpius face. “Oh, maybe she forgot to tell you. She started going out with Derek Ford recently.”

“I didn’t know they knew each other.” Scorpius ventured tentatively.

“Merry introduced them during her birthday party that you missed out on because of your family holiday.” Albus reminded him. “And he was kind of obviously into her then. I think they’ve been exchanging letters all summer…you can ask her when she gets here.”

Scorpius was finding it rather hard to believe that Rose would date a boy she clearly hadn’t known for very long. Then again, what did he know about Rose Weasley’s romantic inclinations? Close to nothing was the pathetic answer, which made sense considering he’d barely thought of her as a girl in that sense until this year.

In fact, it was really none of his business, and it shouldn’t bother him. But it did.

\--

Many students were under the impression that being Head Boy or Head Girl came with a sizable list of privileges. Unfortunately, this was mostly untrue, since the only difference between being Head and a Prefect was that they were given an office which they could use for their Head duties or for studying.

“You’ve forgotten that it comes with the perk of being beheld with even greater fear by the younger ones, so that we can turn them into our minions.” Scorpius reminded Rose as they continued on their patrol on the train.

She snorted. “You’re lucky I know you’re joking.”

“I’m not.” He said with all seriousness. “I’ve already embarked on my recruitment of little first-years to join my secret army.”

“We haven’t even reached Hogwarts yet.”

“I have my ways.” He raised a brow as if daring her to belittle his craftiness. “And with absolutely no relation to what we’re discussing, were you planning on telling me anytime soon that you have a boyfriend?”

Rose blinked, because that really _had_ nothing to do with their conversation topic. “Right. I must have forgotten to include your address in my weekly newsletter mailing list.” He eyeballed her until she had the grace to look sheepish. “Well, I was going to tell you when I saw you!”

Scorpius nodded and waited for her to continue. When she didn’t say anything further, he huffed and prompted, “So, what happened?”

She was a little surprised that he was so interested, since he had never been the kind of person to particularly enjoy this kind of topic, unlike the majority of the school population who was always gossiping about the latest relationships. “We met at Merry’s birthday party, and we got along really well. Then he started writing to me over summer, we had a few outings with the others and then he asked me out.”

“It doesn’t sound like you’ve known him for very long, then.” He commented.

Rose was only a little bit annoyed that he wasn’t sounding as supportive as she’d hoped. Then again, it was only to be expected that he’d be all logical about this. “No, but I think I’ve got a reasonably good idea of his character. And he’s Merry’s good friend too, so he has to be alright.”

Scorpius had to concede that point.

“Anyway, I don’t remember _you_ knowing Jenna that well before going out with her.” She pointed out.

“True, and look how that turned out.” He winced, and she immediately looked apologetic.

“Sorry for bringing her up-” She started but he waved her concern away. “I guess what I’m saying is, I don’t want to be like my parents and wait to become best friends and then dance around each other for years before finally realising that he was the one for me all along.”

Scorpius swallowed uncomfortably, because that hit a little too close to home. “Fair enough.”

\--

Scorpius and Rose had laid down some ground rules at the beginning of their term, one of which stated that if they were ever in disagreement about how the other Head carried out their duties, that they would discuss it in a logical manner and listen to the other person’s perspective before making hasty judgments. This was kind of new for the dynamics of their friendship, because normally they would have Albus to mediate between them. But Albus was busy being an amazing Quidditch Captain, and since he wasn’t a Head Prefect, it wasn’t his job to sort out their issues.

Rose guessed that she shouldn’t have been too surprised that it wasn’t very long before the first issue came up. She was, however, shocked by the content of the issue itself, which another concerned fifth-year prefect had brought to her attention. So she made sure to address it the moment they reached the privacy of the Head office.

“One of the prefects told me that you both saw a first-year student getting bullied by older students and that you told her you’d take care of the matter, but you didn’t stop the bullying.” She said, almost not believing the words that were coming out of her mouth. “Is it true?”

Scorpius frowned slightly but nodded. “Let me tell you why. I think that if every time someone gets bullied, a prefect comes and saves the victim and punishes the bullies, the victim will never learn to stand up for himself. We are not here to get them out of every difficult situation they find themselves facing. We need to help them become stronger.”

She gaped at him, utterly flabbergasted at his reasoning. “You expect me to stand there and watch a student get beaten up and do _nothing_?”

“I’m not saying not to intervene if it gets too out of hand.” He quickly clarified. “But if we don’t let the victim learn to fight back now, it will make it harder for him to do so when the stakes are higher as he grows older.”

Rose sputtered. “They’re just kids! You- you’re talking like every student should expect to run into fights all the time! Hogwarts should be a kind and safe environment for them to learn in, not to get pushed around by others-”

“And then what happens after they leave Hogwarts and go back to the real world where there are plenty of people waiting to take advantage of them?” He shot back. “It takes time for resilience to be built up. That’s what I told the kid.”

“You _told_ him that?” She stared at him.

Scorpius gave her an odd look. “Well, I wasn’t going to leave him there to think that all he can do is take their abuse and live the rest of his life in fear of encountering them.”

“I should hope not!” Rose was still trying to wrap her head around this new side of Scorpius she hadn’t seen before. “I’m still not convinced.”

He sighed and leaned forward in his chair. “It worked for me.” He said quietly, waiting for the meaning to sink in.

She sat in stunned silence for a few moments. “What happened?”

“When you come from a family of Death Eaters, people are _not_ going to welcome you with open arms, Rose. You and I had very different experiences of our first year here.” He didn’t elaborate on how exactly he’d been bullied, but she could hazard a guess. “When Albus first befriended me, I thought he might have been dared to play some cruel prank on me.”

Knowing Albus’ kind and compassionate nature, Rose could only conclude that Scorpius really must have experienced a lot of unkindness to be suspicious of her cousin, of all people. “I’m sorry.” It seemed woefully inadequate.

“It wasn’t your fault.” He smiled wryly. “And thanks to you and Al, I’ve learned not to be a self-indulgent whiny brat, remember?”

She grinned. “Yeah, you’re one tough cookie.”

\--

It had been a fun Hogsmeade trip, although Rose insisted that they couldn’t stay out for too long because she still had to finish some homework for her NEWT classes. The two couples split ways and headed back to their respective common rooms.

“So, how are things going with Derek?” Albus grinned expectantly.

“It’s going well.” Rose smiled. “He’s a great guy.”

“So I guess we should expect to see him at our study sessions?” He asked.

“Oh, I asked him and he said he’d rather stick to his current study group.” She shrugged.

“Right, of course.”

Rose didn’t mention that when she’d suggested it to Derek, he’d looked a little embarrassed and admitted that he didn’t think he’d be able to keep up in a study group that included her and Scorpius Malfoy in it. Of course, she’d tried to insist that that wouldn’t be the case at all, but Derek had already heard from Merry how she and Albus tended to go at their own pace and left the other two to speed ahead.

And then she’d felt embarrassed herself, which was weird because she’d never felt bad for being book-smart – rather, she’d spent her first five years worrying that she wasn’t good enough. What was even stranger was that she’d momentarily been tempted to act like she wasn’t that high-achieving in order to make him feel better about himself. 

It was just as well that she’d happened to meet up with Scorpius to discuss some prefect duties, and any conversation with the Head Boy always made her want to be as intelligent as possible. She’d felt rather bad then for comparing the two of them. After all, it wasn’t like she didn’t respect Derek.

“Hey, how come Scorpius didn’t meet us at The Three Broomsticks today like he said he would?” Rose asked Albus suddenly, feeling a little bad for enjoying herself without her fellow Head.

“I don’t know.” Albus frowned. “Surely he wouldn’t have just forgotten. Maybe he’s finally completed the merging process with his favourite library chair and they are now one.”

Rose rolled her eyes at her cousin’s stupid joke. “You don’t think he feels like a third wheel around us, do you?”

“Scorpius? Nah, I doubt it.” Albus said easily. “He’s not sensitive like that.”

“Hey guys.” Scorpius caught up to them outside the Gryffindor common room entrance.

“Hey! Where were you just now?” Rose demanded. “We waited for you but you never showed up.”

Scorpius looked rather apologetic. “I’m sorry. I was going to leave when I got caught up helping Madam Fitzpatrick with one of the second-year students after a spell gone awry. And by the time we were done, I figured you guys would be on your way back already anyway.” He didn’t mention how he didn’t particularly enjoy watching Rose and Derek being close either.

“Ah, my friend, the Healer-in-making.” Albus clapped him on the shoulder. “I got you some chocolate.” He handed him a bag from Honeydukes, which Scorpius accepted enthusiastically.

“Hardly, but thanks for the compliment.” Scorpius opened a chocolate wrapper. “It’s utterly crushing to my self-esteem to see how effortless it comes to someone like Madam Fitzpatrick when all I can do is mend broken noses and tiny cuts. I’ve asked her to let me help out in the infirmary whenever I can so that I can learn from her.”

There was something about how humble and keen to learn Scorpius was being that just made Rose admire him all the more. Healing was one of the hardest career pathways to get into, and she had no doubt that he would make it.

“You’ll soon get a lot of love-struck girls suddenly coming down with ailments and waiting to be seen by you.” Albus predicted cheekily. “Oh, Healer Malfoy, it hurts so bad. I need you to make me feel all better with your magic touch.” He simpered in an awful imitation of a ditzy girl.

“May I hit him?” Scorpius asked Rose wearily.

“Please do.”

\--

It was fairly improper of Rose to be using the Heads Office to spend some alone time with Derek, but she figured that Scorpius wouldn’t mind and that none of the Professors would actually find out. It had been Derek’s suggestion when they realised that the castle wasn’t really designed to be conducive for dating.

Right now he had leaned over and kissed her more thoroughly than he normally dared to do when they were in proximity of other people. Rose quite enjoyed snogging, although they had never gone beyond that, but now Derek had deepened the kiss and his warm hand slid up her thigh to rest on her hip as he pulled her in closer.

Suddenly it felt a little awkward as Rose was acutely aware of where his hands were and she wasn’t sure if she felt okay with it. It didn’t make sense, since she liked kissing Derek and was obviously attracted to him. Yet it felt strange to be thusly intimate with him, and now that she’d thought about it she couldn’t stop thinking and it was about to interfere with the activity at hand.

Then the door opened and Scorpius walked in and dumped his satchel onto a chair before noticing the couple on the sofa. “Oh!” He said in surprise.

Rose and Derek quickly separated, and she was suddenly overcome by a feeling of relief, which was rather annoying and confusing. “Sorry-”

“I’m sorry.” Scorpius was saying at the same time. “I didn’t realise you two were in here.” His voice sounded slightly strangled, and his face had the oddest expression that Rose couldn’t fathom. “I’ll just take my stuff and clear out.” He grabbed his satchel and a few documents that had been lying on his desk and hurried out of the room.

To his credit, Derek didn’t look too annoyed by the interruption and merely turned back to Rose with a smile. Before his lips could touch hers, she drew back and saw a flash of surprise on his face. “I just remembered that…that I need to get this Prefects roster done by today and give it to Scorpius.” She made a flimsy excuse.

“Oh.” Derek sighed. “Do you have to do it _now_?”

“Yes, yes I do.” Rose replied hurriedly, absolutely positive that she wouldn’t be able to continue snogging with the weird feelings and thoughts she was having right now. “I’ll never get it done in time otherwise. I’m sorry.”

“I suppose it can’t be helped.” He shrugged and stood up from the sofa. “I’ll just work on my Charms homework while you do it, then. We can always continue another time.” He grinned suggestively.

Rose returned his smile with a weak one of her own. What on earth was _wrong_ with her?

\--

It was pure chance that led to her witnessing the adorable scene. Rose had volunteered to help Merry go down to the owlery to get a school owl to deliver a letter to her parents, which she hadn’t the time to do due to the essays she needed to get done. Actually, Merry had first cheekily suggested that Rose do her essays for her, to which Rose had rolled her eyes.

She was about to step into the owlery when she heard a familiar baritone voice talking and her heart gave a little leap.

“The other girls say it’s stupid to still be homesick.” A little girl’s voice could be heard punctuated by sad sniffs. “B-but I’ve never been away from my parents for so long!”

“It must be hard for you.” Scorpius said kindly, patting her from his position crouched down next to her. It was ridiculously cute to see the tall boy hunkering down to meet the first-year girl at eye level, and Rose found herself smiling unconsciously. “Shall I tell you a secret?”

“Y-yeah?”

“When I first came here, I missed my parents all the way until I got to see them at Christmas.” Scorpius confided. “And when I came back after Christmas, I missed them even more.”

“Really?” She stared at the big boy in wonder. How could the Head Boy possibly have been something as silly as homesick?

“Cross my heart.” Scorpius nodded solemnly. “I was really lonely in my first year here too, which made it hard.”

“Didn’t you have lots of friends?” The little girl asked in confusion.

“Nope.” He shook his head, and Rose felt a little pang as she imagined little Scorpius being ignored by several students whose parents had suffered at the hands of Death Eaters in the past. “But you know, it all gets easier as time goes by. And then I met my best friend, and it helped me not miss home so much.”

“I’ve got some friends.” The little girl volunteered with a wobbly smile. “I guess it’s easier for me.”

“That’s great.” Scorpius smiled encouragingly. “Now, you go ahead and send that letter. And next time someone calls you stupid for missing home, tell them how wonderful your home is, and maybe they’ll understand.”

“Thank you, sir.” She said shyly, slightly entranced by the handsome seventeen-year old. Then she ran off to find her owl as Scorpius chuckled.

Rose chose that moment to step into the owlery and make her presence known. “Looks like you’ve won yourself another admirer, Head Boy.”

Usually he would have replied with a flip comment about recruiting a minion, but there was something serious about his expression. “I’m trying to live up to the position.” He admitted quietly. “I know it’s different for you, but actively caring for other people doesn’t come easily to me.”

“I think you’re doing just fine.” Rose smiled at him, and they stood there in companionable silence for a bit before she remembered Merry’s letter and starting chasing after a school owl.

\--

Rose sighed as she finished perusing Victoire’s letter to her. Her older cousin was quite a good correspondent, and had sent Rose letters throughout the latter’s years at Hogwarts after Victoire had graduated. Rose often felt that Victoire was a reliable person she could ask for advice and not be laughed at or patronised – as opposed to James and Fred, for example.

Victoire’s letter contained little updates about the family and work, but all Rose could focus on was the love she felt that Victoire had for Teddy when she complained about how dangerous his work was and about how she hoped to have little children with ever-changing hair colour like his. It made Rose think of Derek and how it was blindingly obvious to her now that she didn’t actually feel the same way about her boyfriend.

Other girls told her she was so lucky to have such a nice, sweet and caring boyfriend who respected her and was attentive to her needs. And Derek was lovely, which made Rose feel all the more guilty for not being able to say that she loved him. Her heart didn’t so much as flutter whenever he smiled at her. That seemed like a stupid little thing to ask for, right out of Witch Weekly, but Rose couldn’t help but wish there was some more palpable _feeling_ towards him.

She suddenly remembered that survey she’d taken when writing her essay on Romeo and Juliet about whether her friends and family believed in true love. Fred had explained that people needed to work hard at relationships, and she rather wondered whether he’d been thinking of his parents when he said that. Perhaps she hadn’t worked hard at this relationship with Derek – after all, she hadn’t really given it all that much thought when she’d agreed to go out with him.

On the other hand, James had cited so many examples of true love within their family alone, and Rose had grown up surrounded by it. Even now as she watched Albus and Merry grow closer in their relationship, she could still remember the clear adoration in Merry’s eyes when Albus caught the Snitch in his first game as Gryffindor Captain, and had swooped down to the stands to kiss her enthusiastically. 

Rose couldn’t really accept anything less, even though it sounded incredibly selfish at the moment.

“I don’t think you’re being selfish.” Lily opined. “Although I’m not sure why you’re asking me.”

“I can’t ask Merry – she’s Derek’s friend.” Rose explained. “And I guess I thought you’d understand better, being from the same family and all.”

“Thanks.” Lily grinned. “Firstly, I don’t know if it’s helpful to compare your relationship to Teddy and Victoire’s. They’re kind of special.”

Rose considered this for a moment before conceding it to be true.

“But I think it’s nice to want true love.” Lily shrugged. “And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with James. What a surprise.” She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “It would be hard to settle for less when we see so much of it around. Although, it might not be realistic to find one’s true love at our age.”

“Our parents did.” Rose felt the need to point out.

“What in your entire life has led you to believe that our parents are normal?”

\--

“By the way, I just thought you should know that Derek and I are no longer dating.” Rose informed the little study group huddled in the furthest corner of the library.

Scorpius steadfastly ignored the tiny leap his heart gave.

“What?” Albus’ eyes were round and surprised. “Why? I thought things were going great with you two. Did you have a fight? Did he cheat on you?”

“Surely not!” Merry looked aghast.

“Calm down, guys.” Rose blinked at their agitation. “I guess the relationship wasn’t really going anywhere, that’s all. No major fights, no cheating, no nasty name-calling.”

She looked nonchalant, but Scorpius didn’t think anyone could break up from a happy relationship and be utterly fine about it. “It all sounds very amicable.”

“Sorry if you were expecting more drama, Scorpius.” She replied dryly.

Scorpius rolled his eyes and returned to the study material, biding his time until they were done studying and were alone on the way to the Heads room. “Out of curiosity, was this a mutual decision to end the relationship?”

Rose looked confused at the random personal question before straightening her shoulders. “Well, I don’t see how it’s any of your business.”

“I just find it hard to believe that Ford would be perceptive enough to realise it for himself.” He drawled as they entered the Heads office. “He’s not the sharpest wand in the shop.”

“Hey!” She huffed and placed her hands on her hips crossly, inadvertently drawing his gaze lower. “Not everyone feels the need to show off like you do.”

He shrugged insolently, secure in his intelligence.

She wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t see how it could hurt to tell him. Unlike Albus, he wouldn’t be sympathetic, but also unlike Albus, he wouldn’t speak to Merry about it, and Rose had no desire to have the Hufflepuff seventh-years gossiping about her. “He brought it up first, but I had already been thinking about breaking up with him. It was kind of funny, in that sense.”

Well, she didn’t look amused, Scorpius thought. “What did he say?”

Rose sat down on her comfy chair with a slight sigh. “He basically said that he felt that the relationship wasn’t going to work out in the long-term, because we don’t actually love each other. And it was better to break it off now before it gets too messy, and that he hoped we could stay friends.”

“And those were your sentiments too, eh?” He checked, and she nodded. “Was it a relief that he brought it up first? It would have saved you the awkwardness of doing it.”

Trust the Head Boy to get all logical about it. “You’d think so.” She bit her lip, wondering whether it was unwise to be so honest with him. But he was looking at her like he was terribly interested in her answer, and honestly, she _needed_ to talk to someone about it. “I mean, I was going to say the exact same thing to him and hope that he wouldn’t be upset. But since he brought it up first, it felt like I was the one being… dumped.”

Then Scorpius felt an irrational surge of anger at Derek Ford, because how could any guy in his right mind _dump_ someone as amazing as Rose Weasley? Why wasn’t he on his knees thanking his lucky stars that she had agreed to date him? Scorpius realised his fists were clenched and quickly relaxed his grip.

“I know it’s silly, and it’s definitely for the best that I stopped kidding myself about the relationship, but he was a good boyfriend, and I did like him. Just… not enough, I suppose.” Rose winced. “Merlin, that sounds so…” Her arms flailed around helplessly.

“Reasonable.” He interjected. “I think you’re right about not wasting your time on him when you don’t see it going anywhere long-term. But that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to mourn the loss.”

She gave him a shaky smile. “Thanks.”


	10. 7th Year - Part B

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which an investigation is conducted, everyone takes NEWTs, and Scorpius has an important conversation with Rose.

For once, Rose and Albus elected to stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas break to continue with their studying for NEWTs with Scorpius and Meredith. Many of the other final-year students had done the same, along with the usual smattering of students from other years, and they found that celebrating Christmas at Hogwarts was surprisingly enjoyable.

Even though they had been hitting the books with admirable fervour, everyone agreed that Christmas Day should be celebrated with equal enthusiasm. There was an amazing feast cooked up by the house elves, plenty of crackers to go around, and beautiful decorations in the Great Hall. “If they fed us like this every day we’d all look like pumpkins.” Albus declared happily as he cut another slice of fruitcake.

Scorpius took the opportunity to laugh and relax with his friends, ever so often sneaking glances at Rose, who looked like she was wholeheartedly enjoying herself as well. He hadn’t seen her quite so happy since she’d broken up with Derek, and her smile made him feel oddly warm and fuzzy inside. A selfish part of him was irrationally glad that she was spending their last Christmas as students with him and not with another guy. 

He snapped out of his reverie when something poked him in the side, and he jerked up to see Rose wielding a Christmas cracker and raising a challenging eyebrow at him. “I bet I’ll win.” She declared.

Scorpius grinned back and obligingly yanked on the other end. With a resounding bang, the cracker yielded a ridiculous hat with all sorts of ornaments on it, which Rose placed firmly on his head. Then her eyes widened slightly as she noticed something on the hat. 

To his shock, she leaned in and placed a light kiss on his cheek. Scorpius could feel his face flaming red and gaped at Rose, his heart speeding up to triple time. 

“Mistletoe.” She pointed to his hat in explanation and continued grinning.

He ripped the hat off his head and stared at it disbelievingly. And then, in a move that could only be explained by the Firewhiskey someone had slipped him, the magic of the night and her enchanting smile, he put the hat on her head and quickly kissed her cheek.

It was Rose’s turn to look shocked, before Albus and Merry noticed the hat and came over to kiss her as well, and there was nothing but chaos after that.

\--

It wasn’t often that Rose went to the hospital wing, and she had gone there to visit one of her tutees who had been bitten during a Care of Magical Creatures class and was under observation in case late effects of the bite manifested. The third-year girl was rather gratified to receive a visit from the Head Girl, who had snuck her some Chocolate Frogs while Madam Fitzpatrick’s back was turned.

She noticed Scorpius tending to a smaller boy, a slight frown on his face as he did so. It was rather heart-warming to see how gentle he could be with his patients, though Rose would rather die than admit he was part of the reason she was there in the hospital wing. Then he murmured something to the boy and got up to find Madam Fitzpatrick in the back room where she kept the potions. She patted her tutee on the head and strolled across the spacious area to the little boy. “Hello.”

The boy had curled up a little in his bed as if frightened of her. “H-hello.”

“My name’s Rose. What’s yours?” She asked in her warmest tone.

“I’m Calvin, ma’am.” He replied softly.

“It’s nice to meet you, Calvin.” Rose smiled kindly. “I was just over there visiting my friend when I saw you, and I thought you might like a Chocolate Frog.”

Calvin’s small body relaxed and he returned her smile tentatively. “Yeah, that would be nice.”

She handed one to him and grinned as he bit into it. Then she put on her best fake expression of horror. “Oh no, is it okay for you to eat that? You don’t happen to have one of those strange diseases which make you allergic to _chocolate_ , do you?”

Calvin’s mouth was full of chocolate as he shook his head emphatically. “No, I’m here because I got hurt.” He looked a little uncomfortable as he said so, and resumed chewing.

“Oh dear, you poor thing.” Rose clucked sympathetically. “Is it very painful?”

“Not so much now.” He answered. “Scorpius put something on them and now they’re returning to normal.” He shyly demonstrated his arms where there were faint outlines of bruises fading away.

“That’s a relief!” She beamed at him, not quite realising the effect she was having on the impressionable eleven-year old. “What happened to you?”

“I-” He looked scared all of a sudden, and Rose blinked. “-I got hit.”

Rose wasn’t sure what the circumstances were, but she didn’t like the expression on his face. “How did that happen?” She asked in her kindest voice.

\--

“And that’s what he told me.” Rose finished, biting her lower lip in worry. Scorpius frowned as he digested what she had just said. “It sounds very strange and unclear, and I don’t know whether he was absolutely honest with me.” She added as a sort of disclaimer.

“He isn’t the first one.” Scorpius finally spoke. “There have been a few other first years who have come in with similar injuries, with these vague stories of falling down the stairs. And while we _are_ in a magic castle with moving staircases, Madam Fitzpatrick found it slightly fishy. What this Calvin told you would validate our suspicions.”

Rose looked more agitated at his words. “But …that’s crazy! If what Calvin says is true, we’re talking about our schoolmates forcing first-years to duel for _entertainment_! And after they get injured, they’re threatened to hold their tongues or else get tortured. It’s sick!”

“And based on some of the patients we saw, they might have been under a coercive spell, which would explain why they weren’t able to give more concrete stories.” Scorpius’ expression was frighteningly grim.

“We need to tell the professors about this.” Rose stood up in a righteous fury and made as if to rush out of the Heads Office, but Scorpius shot out an arm and pulled her back down.

“We don’t have solid proof, Rose.” He reminded her. “At most we have a very hesitant testimony of an eleven-year-old, with a very serious accusation against several older students. I think we’ll need to investigate this further before we involve the professors. If it’s untrue, then we won’t have bothered them with a false tale. If it’s true, then we’ll have much better evidence against the perpetrators.”

Rose could practically see the beginnings of a plan formulating in Scorpius’ brain. She realised that for once, she’d acted just like a Gryffindor was expected to, while he displayed the Slytherin cunning and patience to plan things out rather than charge in unprepared. A few years ago, she might have scoffed at him and tried to work out her own plan. But they had both grown up since then.

His hand felt really warm on her arm.

“What do you suggest?”

\--

In the end they had to tell Albus what they were doing, because the Invisibility Cloak was in his possession and he wouldn’t lend it to them without knowing their reasons for borrowing it. If they had had more time, Rose would have preferred brewing some Polyjuice Potion and sneaking in that way, but they didn’t have a month to spare. Scorpius had considered charming an object like a mirror which they could get Calvin to carry in for them to view the proceedings without being present – like a video-camera, Hugo said excitedly – but it relied too much on the first-year boy.

The Cloak could comfortably cover two grown people, but covering three people was a bit of a stretch. Scorpius contemplated the strength of their Disillusionment charms before deciding that only two people could go. Albus was a little reluctant to be left out, but had to admit that the two Heads were generally better at spellcasting than he was, and he was actually pretty busy with Quidditch at the moment.

As they quietly trailed behind Calvin to the dungeons, Rose found herself acutely aware of just how close Scorpius was to her. His body was exuding a comforting warmth that made her want to huddle in even closer. After the mistletoe joke on Christmas Day, she had occasionally thought about his lips on her cheek and what it might be like to be physically closer to him. She’d dismissed them as silly thoughts that meant nothing, but couldn’t quite get rid of the niggling at the back of her brain.

What they found at the end of their investigation was just as bad as they had imagined, with a small group of sixth and seventh-year students forcing the first-year students to duel while placing bets on the outcome. And even though Rose couldn’t prove it, she was almost positive that one of them had cast a silent Cruciatus on one of the first-years who had lost the duel. Scorpius had to physically hold her back from charging in, although she noted that he was trembling with anger as well.

It took a huge effort for them to leave quietly and head towards the Professorial wing without being noticed. Rose noticed that Scorpius’ expression was terrifyingly calm despite how furious she knew he had to be. “I cannot believe this was happening under my nose for weeks without me realising.” He muttered.

She laid a hand on his arm, and he glanced at her in surprise. “It isn’t your fault.” She said firmly. “And you _did_ realise that something was going on. Now that we can report it to the Headmistress, the problem will be taken care of, and you can go back to the Hospital Wing to care for the kids.”

“If those students aren’t expelled, I will personally see to it that they spend the rest of the year suffering.” He replied grimly, but his stance relaxed a little.

“I’ll join you.” She promised, earning a tiny smile from him. They stood there for a few moments before she realised her hand was still on his arm, and jerked back with a blush.

\--

By the next morning, the guilty students had been hauled up to the Headmistress’ office where they were interrogated both by the Professors and a couple of Aurors who had been dispatched to handle the situation. Rose didn’t think that the situation actually warranted two Aurors, but was pleasantly surprised to see that one of them was actually James, who had come along with his mentor as part of his training.

His mentor had allowed him some time to greet his family in the school, to Albus’ and Lily’s delight. “We hardly get to see you anymore.” Lily pouted as she stood back from the bear hug she had given her oldest brother.

“It’s weird seeing you look so official and grown up.” Albus offered cheekily. Rose had to agree – her cousin looked too serious for a twenty-year old, in official black robes and his hair unusually neat for once. He still cut a rather dashing figure, and several of the students walking by were openly staring and giggling at him.

James rolled his eyes. “With a mentor like mine, it’s an occupational hazard.” Then he turned to Rose and Scorpius, his expression a little more serious. “Good work on investigating the case. I can see that McGonagall picked her two Heads well. Although I don’t know what Uncle Ron would say if he knew you were sneaking around with Scorpius at night.”

“Shut up, James.” Rose folded her arms exasperatedly and ignored Lily’s snickering, although a slight blush rose to her cheeks at what her cousin had been implying, and she involuntarily recalled the feeling of Scorpius’ arms on hers. 

“How has the Auror training been like?” Scorpius quickly changed the subject before he blushed too.

James shrugged, and Rose realised that he looked more tired than she’d ever seen him before. “It’s challenging and I’m learning a lot, but I’ve still got a long way to go before I’m ready to complete missions independently. Why, are you interested in pursuing such a career?” He raised a brow curiously.

“Definitely not.” Scorpius said honestly. “Last night’s investigation was quite enough for me. I think I’ll stick to Healing from now on.”

\--

“What if I fail everything?”

Merry looked up in alarm at the despairing question that she couldn’t believe was coming out of Rose’s mouth. Rose was the last person in Hogwarts who should be worrying about failing. Or perhaps Scorpius was, but everyone knew Rose was going to get straight O’s. “You’re not going to fail!” She said reassuringly but Rose didn’t look convinced.

“I’m serious, Merry!” Rose wailed. “There’s too much material to cover! I’ve been reading this chapter on Polyjuice Potion for the past fifteen minutes and I can’t even remember anything beyond the first seven steps!”

Merry felt like retorting that she herself couldn’t even remember the ingredients, let alone the sequence of steps, but realised that it would just devolve into her panicking as well and then they’d never recover from it. “Rose, do you actually think the NEWT paper will require you to write down every step in sequence for that potion?”

“It could happen.” Rose muttered, although she didn’t sound too convinced.

“Rose, you’re the smartest witch in our year, and you’ve studied more than anyone else.” Merry said steadily. “You are going to remember everything and go in to those NEWTs and ace every single paper.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” Merry resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Look at me, I’m taking fewer subjects than you are, and I don’t even know what I don’t know! But I’m not freaking out.”

Rose sighed. “I’ll never understand how you manage to stay so chill.”

“It’s because I’m such a cool person.” Merry said with a straight face, and Rose groaned at the pun. 

The weeks leading up to the NEWTs seemed to fly by, and before they knew it, their first exam was upon them. By consensus, the night before the first exam was left free on their study schedule. Rose recognised the need to relax right before going into her heavy exam timetable, but found herself sitting in the Gryffindor common room feeling terribly anxious.

Then a hand landed lightly on her shoulder and she turned to see Albus. “Hey, are you okay?”

“I’m not sure.” Rose admitted. “Tomorrow I’ll be taking the most important Transfiguration exam of my life. And I know I’ve studied to the best of my ability, but I can’t help but feel like something could go horribly wrong in the exam.” She glanced up at Albus who was still silent. “Aren’t you going to tell me that that’s ridiculous?”

Albus chewed on his lip. “Well, you never know. It could all actually go horribly wrong. But even if it does, it won’t be the end of the world. Life is more than just exams.”

Rose giggled when Albus made a face at the cheesy line he’d just said. “You’re right, I guess. Thanks, Al.”

\--

The next few weeks of NEWTs went by in a blur of written questions, practical spellcasting and cramming sessions in between. Albus was just glad to get them over and done with, and had to tune out Scorpius and Rose running through every single question of every exam in the five subjects they shared and debating over their answers. Rose tried to do the same thing with Meredith for History of Magic (which neither Scorpius nor Albus took) but the Hufflepuff girl pleaded exhaustion and practically ran away.

Everyone ended the NEWTs on the same day with the Charms exam being the last one. “We’re free, free, free!” Albus sang as he skipped out of the Great Hall. Usually Rose would be rather embarrassed by such a childish display, but half the students were expressing their joy in similar ways, and she herself was feeling an immense sense of relief.

Scorpius found himself grinning at his best friend’s antics, and glanced over at Rose. She happened to look at him at the same time with a huge smile on her face, and he suddenly felt as if he’d been Stunned. Rose then sidled up to him and began asking him about his answers for the first section of the exam, while Albus and Merry groaned good-naturedly.

Scorpius was discussing the exam questions with Rose, but he kept getting distracted by how near she was to him and all the feelings he had for her. He’d tried to tamp down on them, and for a while during the exam period, he had almost been able to forget about anything other than his studies. But now that all that stress was over and she was talking to him with that animated expression he found adorable, it hit him just how much he liked her.

He’d been thinking for a few months now whether to confess his feelings for her, but then the incident with the first-years had occurred, and after that it was exam time and he didn’t want anything to disrupt their equilibrium during that period. But now – now he’d run out of excuses.

\--

Albus wasn’t sure he’d heard his best friend correctly and continued gaping like a goldfish.

Scorpius looked back at the other boy nervously. “Al? Please say something. Anything.”

“You- you like _Rose_?” Albus echoed Scorpius’ earlier confession in disbelief, and yet snippets of his memories of them started to form a still incomplete picture – how Scorpius was sometimes found just staring at Rose, or how he hadn’t liked Derek Ford, and how he more often than not was rather cutting with his words against people who disagreed with Rose in class.

“Do you think I should tell her?” Scorpius sounded uncharacteristically uncertain for someone who usually carried himself with confidence in whatever he did.

As Albus stared at him, he realised that he couldn’t think of a better bloke for Rose than Scorpius Malfoy. No one else understood her or could keep up with her as well as Scorpius did, and the guy obviously cared very much for her wellbeing. And Albus wasn’t stupidly overprotective like James and Fred were – in fact, the thought of Rose being happy with a boyfriend made him happy too. “Why not?”

Scorpius could think of several reasons, but the one that had reined in his tongue many times before was the one at the forefront of his mind. “What if she says no, and I ruin our friendship forever?” He pointed out miserably, because the thought of losing a friend like Rose Weasley was simply unbearable.

Albus fell silent as well, imagining what it might be like if Rose didn’t reciprocate Scorpius’ feelings and then things got weird between them. How would they hang out together as a group after that? What if Albus ended up having to mediate between them? Actually, would they still hang out together if they were all going their separate ways after graduation anyway?

The last thought was more depressing than the rest.

\--

Unbeknownst to him, the same thoughts were running through Rose’s head as she observed the students coming and going in the Gryffindor common room while pretending to read a book. Hogwarts had been _seven_ years of her life. How does one go from seven years of living, laughing and studying with your friends nine months of the year to staying at home with your family and only seeing your friends once in a while?

Well, it would probably be okay with regards to Albus, because they lived ridiculously close to each other, their parents were best friends, and they would see each other at every family event anyway. And if Albus and Merry continued along this trajectory they were on, she would probably be seeing Merry for a long time afterwards.

“You’re looking rather sad for someone who’s done with NEWTs.” Lily observed her cousin closely. “Is something wrong?”

Rose blinked and looked over to where Lily was doodling wand movements on a piece of parchment. “I- I guess I just realised that my school life is ending, and I’m not going to get to see my friends every day anymore.”

Lily nodded slowly. “You and Scorpius have been practically attached at the hip this year. Life will be strange without him around, eh?”

‘Strange’ wasn’t really the word she’d use. She was going to miss having him around, with his snarky comments, thought-provoking questions and good humour. If Rose had to be honest, she probably hadn’t realised just how big a part of her life Scorpius Malfoy had been. 

She felt a pang in her chest when she realised she wouldn’t be seeing him every day as she had grown accustomed to. Healer training was notoriously demanding, and she rather doubted he’d have time to catch up with her every weekend, if that. And ultimately, his best friend was Albus rather than her, and he’d understandably want to spend more time with her cousin.

It hurt to think that _she_ wasn’t the person Scorpius would miss the most. Rose blinked in surprise at that thought. Why did she care anyway? It wasn’t as if she _wanted_ to be the most important person in Scorpius’ life. Or did she?

Rose sat up on the couch with a tiny gasp. Lily smiled to herself and continued doodling.

\--

“So here are my thoughts.” Albus said softly, although it wasn’t like Rose would be capable of hearing them when they were sitting at the Slytherin dining table over breakfast. “What if you never told her how you feel?”

Scorpius nodded heavily. “I’d be able to preserve our friendship… and then maybe get over her eventually.” He didn’t sound too hopeful over the last bit.

“But,” Albus chewed on his crumpet thoughtfully, “what if you don’t? What if you just keep pining over her while she goes and gets another boyfriend? What if they get married?”

Scorpius swallowed uncomfortably, a familiar red-hot ache of jealousy burning in his stomach.

“Are you going to stand there and wish her happiness with her husband for the rest of her life?” Albus continued.

“I… I could do it as long as she was happy.” Scorpius’ grip on his fork was turning his knuckles white. “I would have to.”

“She could be happy with _you_.” Albus pointed out gently. “And even if it didn’t work out in the end, Rose values you too much to give up on your friendship.” Scorpius looked almost convinced, and Albus finally added, “If you don’t tell her now, you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering what would have happened if you did, and whether you could have been happy together.”

Scorpius groaned and ran harried fingers through his normally neat hair. “You’re right. I hate you, but you’re right.”

“All I ask in return is that you name your first son after me.” Albus concluded solemnly.

“Seriously, what _is_ it with Potters and naming children after their friends?”

\--

The silence in the Heads office was unusually uncomfortable, with both of them wanting to say something but not quite daring to voice it out. Rose looked up from the parchment in front of her and glanced at Scorpius for the fifth time in the past two minutes. Ever since her little epiphany in the Gryffindor common room about how she felt about Scorpius – which, if she had to be honest, had been developing over the past two years – she had been rather awkward around him.

Sometimes she would catch him looking at her with an undefinable expression on his face, and wondered if he might feel the same way about her. It was easy to lose herself in her imagination as she dreamed about what it would be like to hold his hand while walking down the corridors, to go on a date to Hogsmeade, to rest her head on his shoulder and discuss their futures together.

“It’s weird to think that we won’t be here in Hogwarts next year.” Rose blurted out, unable to bear the quiet between them any longer.

Scorpius looked up from his parchment as well. “Yeah. I keep thinking back to when we were tiny first-years. It feels like yesterday, and yet seems so long ago at the same time.”

“What are your plans for the summer?”

“Madam Fitzpatrick wrote me a reference letter to get some work experience in St Mungo’s, so I’ll be shadowing some Healers before our NEWT results come out and I can apply for Healer training.” He said enthusiastically.

Rose’s eyes widened. “Wow, you’ve got it all planned out. Sounds busy.”

“I suppose it will be.” He nodded thoughtfully.

“I guess we won’t have as much time to meet up, then.” She concluded a little sadly, trying not to sound too disappointed. After all, it was a great opportunity for Scorpius to get an idea of what Healing was really like as a profession and she was happy he’d managed to arrange it. “It’ll be weird, seeing how I’ve been seeing you every day for the past year.” She took a small breath before rushing out, “I’ll miss you.”

It was an uncharacteristically sweet thing for her to say to him, since their conversations usually consisted of either serious discussion about their studies or amusing jabs at each other. And when she was looking at him with those beautiful eyes, he felt his heart clench at the thought of not being able to be with her every day. “Rose, I need to tell you something.” He found himself saying, with a mild sense of panic welling up.

“I know, you’ll miss me too.” She grinned mischievously, although she was secretly hoping he did return the sentiment.

“No, I wanted to tell you-”

“You won’t miss me?” Her eyes were impossibly wide as she gaped in what was only partially fake dismay.

Scorpius was getting rather flustered with the way the conversation was derailing. “What– of course I will! Look, I’m trying to say something and it isn’t easy.”

“Oh, sorry.” Rose looked suitably abashed and gestured for him to continue, wondering what had gotten him in such a state.

Scorpius made sure her gaze met his before he spoke. “I like you, Rose.”

Her heart stuttered to a stop and she wondered if he realised what an impact such careless words had on her. “Uh, thanks? I like you too. Though probably not as much as Al does-”

“Rose.” He leaned in to place his hand on hers, and the next words she’d been about to say died on her lips. “I _like_ you. I’ve liked you since the beginning of the year. And I didn’t want us to part ways without letting you know how I feel about you.”

Rose felt like her world had tilted on its axis, finding it hard to believe what Scorpius was saying. “You… you like me?” She echoed dazedly.

“Yes.” He gripped her hand a little tighter, a little worried by her lack of response. “And if you give me a chance, I’d like to go out with you.”

Then she smiled so delightedly at him that he nearly forgot to breathe. “I’d love that.”

“Really?” He let out a short laugh of surprise and relief.

“Yeah. I like you too.” She couldn’t stop smiling even though her cheeks were starting to hurt.

He squeezed her hand warmly, and they continued grinning at each other until it became a little awkward. “I- would it be okay- can I kiss you?” He mentally groaned at how nervous he sounded.

She gave a tiny nod, and he leaned in slowly as her eyelids fluttered shut and pressed his lips against hers in a gentle kiss. It felt like the culmination of years of longing and shared delight and feeling between them, and he had never been happier.

\--

The three of them looked out onto the Great Lake from one of the balconies with various nostalgic thoughts running through their minds. This place had essentially been their home for the past seven years, and now they were about to bid it farewell.

“I can still remember what it was like to sit on those boats and make our way to the Great Hall for the first time.” Albus smiled. “I was terrified that the Sorting Hat would put me into Slytherin.” He glanced at Scorpius. “No offense, mate.”

Scorpius smiled back wryly. “And I can still remember what it was like to be in first year and have virtually no friends until this skinny Gryffindor boy sat next to me in the library and asked me for help.” Then he frowned slightly. “I was so envious of you two back then.”

“Envious?” Rose echoed.

“Envious of how you were constantly surrounded by family and friends.” He clarified. “Perhaps deep down, I kind of wanted to be a Weasley.”

Rose gasped in mock horror but slid her hand into his comfortingly. “I’m afraid you don’t have the hair for it.”

“He can always marry into the clan.” Albus said offhandedly, and was rewarded by embarrassed expressions on his best friends’ faces. “Too soon?”

“Rather.” Rose scrunched her nose cutely.

Albus let it go for the moment, but was pretty sure that the two of them would become one of those couples disgustingly in love with each other, get married and have lots of blonde and ginger babies who would turn out to be high-achieving little monsters. It was funny how much they had all changed over the past few years, he mused.

“I’m glad we’re friends.” Rose suddenly said, and earned quizzical glances from the two boys flanking her. “I know it sounds trite and doesn’t encompass everything I feel, but there it is. I can’t imagine what life would have been like without three of us together.”

“It’s going to be weird not seeing you guys every day.” Albus sighed and then nodded determinedly. “Let’s make sure we meet up regularly after we go home.”

“Agreed.” Scorpius said solemnly. He wasn’t sure exactly what the future held for them, but he knew that as long as he had them by his side, everything would be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. It's finished! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this story, and special thanks to everyone who has left kudos and comments! I appreciate every single comment, and would love to hear from any of you about what you think of this story.
> 
> 2\. I wrote this while having exams and graduating as well, so some of my feelings about exams and leaving my school have bled over into Rose's thoughts. Apologies if this became too long-winded and rambly!
> 
> 3\. I wasn't quite sure how to end it, so it ended up being rather cheesy. But I love it with my fluffy heart anyway :D Let's assume that they grow up, have stable jobs, get married and have kids.
> 
> 4\. I'm still racking my brains on how to write a James/Emily story, and as you might have guessed, James is still single as of the end of this story. Anyone with any plot ideas is welcome to comment, because I need inspiration. Alternatively, if you hate James/Emily and think it's stupid to try and write them, let me know as well.


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